Ex-NATO Chief Is Found Guilty

Former NATO chief Willy Claes and two other prominent Belgian politicians were found guilty of corruption by the country’s highest court. The Belgian court also said Serge Dassault, a French businessman, was responsible for bribes paid in the late 1980s to socialist parties in return fo1914724640lucrative defense contract. All 12 defendants in the 3 1/2-month trial were given suspended sentences, but the court came down hardest on Claes, 60. He was stripped of his civil and political rights--banning him from political office for five years, in effect, ending his political career. Claes said he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in France because appeal in Belgium is not possible.