UN ex-official's bribery trial closing in New York

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) A former UN procurement official on trail for helping secure contracts for a friend in exchange for kickbacks is the victim of a ''witch hunt'' to clean up bad public relations the world body has suffered in past years, his defense lawyer argued.

In closing arguments yesterday, the lawyer for Sanjaya Bahel, 57, said his client did nothing wrong. Prosecutors accuse him of steering more than 50 million dollars in contracts to two companies represented by longtime family friend Nishan Kohli.

Instead, Bahel, who is charged with accepting corrupt payments, mail fraud and wire fraud, suffered harsh treatment at the hands of investigators following UN scandals, including the Iraq oil-for-food investigation, defense lawyer Richard Herman said.

Bahel was the subject of ''a witch hunt to clean up the bad public relations (the United Nations) experienced in the past few years,'' Herman told jurors in federal court in Manhattan.

Earlier, prosecutor Alex Willscher said Bahel gave inside information and expert advice to help secure contracts for two companies -- the Indian government-owned Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd and Thunderbird Industries LLC --represented by Kohli.

''The defendant should not have been involved with the Kohli companies,'' Willscher said. Kohli was an agent for TCIL and the managing partner of Thunderbird.

In return, the prosecutor argued, Bahel was awarded 10 per cent of Kohli's profits earned through UN business, plane tickets and reduced prices as a renter, and then buyer, of a luxury apartment close to the UN headquarters in Manhattan.

Closing arguments were to continue on Wednesday.

Kohli, who pleaded guilty in exchange for a lenient sentence, testified during the trial he gave Bahel cash and the apartment deal and also paid off other officials with visits to strip clubs and prostitutes.

But during closing arguments Herman said Kohli ''would lie to anybody if it suits him,'' referring to testimony where he admitted cheating on his wife with prostitutes and lying to the government.

Bahel served as chief of the Commodity Procurement Section within the Procurement Division of the United Nations from 1999 to 2003. If convicted of the charges, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

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