Schreiber trial begins in Germany

The trial has begun forKarlheinz Schreiber, a German-Canadian businessman extradited fromCanada to Germany last summerto face charges oftax evasion over his role in a political financing scandal dating back to the 1990s.

Prosecutors in Augsburg, Germany, accuse Schreiber of failing to declare millions from kickbacks he issaid to havereceived for the sale of helicopters to Canada's coast guard andAirbus planes to Air Canada in the 1980s, as well as airlinersto Thailand and tanks to Saudi Arabia.

Schreiber, 75, a former arms-industry lobbyist, also faces charges of breach of trust and accessory to fraud.

In Canada, Schreiberbecame involved incontroversialdealings with former prime minister Brian Mulroney, who served from 1984 to 1993. Schreiber claimed Mulroney agreed to take money from him while still in office. Mulroney has deniedwrongdoing, though he acknowledgedaccepting$225,000 Cdn in cash from Schreiber after leavingpolitics.

Although no formal pleas are entered in the German system, Schreiber's lawyer, Jan Olaf Leisner, told the court his client rejects all charges against him, insisting that the political context of the deals has not been taken into consideration.

"The tone was set by high-ranking politicians," Leisner said.

Allegations that Schreiber gavecashto thetreasurer of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats in 1991 triggered a scandal that deepened with Kohl's 1999 admission that he had personally accepted off-the-books and therefore illegal donations from supporters. Kohl was Germany's chancellor from 1982 to 1998.

If found guilty, Schreiberfaces up to 10 years in prison. He was arrested in Canada in 1999 under a German warrant seeking his extradition. He was released on bail from a Canadian jail in late 2007, andlastAugusthe was sent to Germany after losing a 10-year battle against extradition.