Kohl's party hit by another fine over funding scandal

The fine, ordered by president of parliament Wolfgang Thierse, brings to 41 million marks the total demanded from the party, which ruled Germany for 16 years under former Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Thierse said the new fine was imposed as a result of the anonymous donations that Kohl received between 1993 and 1998 and which totals 2.1 million marks. These donations alone have cost the CDU, which lost the 1998 election to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats, 4.3 million marks in the state support which parties receive in Germany.

Despite enormous political pressure on Kohl to make the public the names of the donors, the 70-year-old former Chancellor has insisted that he had given his word that he would not identify them. The fine also includes donations made to the party by the Canadian-based arms dealer Karlheinz Schreiber, who has been a central figure in the scandal that has rocked the German political establishment.

The financing scandal dates back to the CDU's long reign in power with the revelations about illegal donations having badly damaged both the party's political standing and Kohl's reputation as a European statesman, who guided Germany through unification. Friday's fine was also the consequence of a transfer of 600,000 marks in party funds in 1990.

Thierse said, however, that the Christian Democrats would not face fines as a result of the undeclared transfer of 10 million marks in party funds between 1989 and 1992, some of which were derived from covert foreign-based bank accounts. The 7.7 million mark fine did include a controversial 100,000 marks that Schreiber paid to the party through its former chief Wolfgang Schaeuble or its treasurer Brigitte Baumeister in 1994.

Schaeuble emerged as CDU leader following the loss of the 1998 election but was later forced to resign as the revelations about the financing scandal surfaced.

(la/dpa)