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BCCI trial

adjourned

for today

ABU DHABI: A United Arab Emirates (UAE) appeals court on Tuesday adjourned the trial of several BCCI defendents to Wednesday for more argument by the defence, laywers said.

Wednesday's session will again be held behind closed doors and focus on documents to be submitted by the defence, they said.

The trial of the former top executives of the liquidated Bank of Credit and Commerce International has gained momentum over the past two weeks and lawyers expected it to be over within two months.

Hearings resumed in late 1995 after both the prosecution and defence appealed against earlier sentences by an Abu Dhabi court involving prison terms ranging between three and 14 years and an order for the defendants to pay nearly nine billion dollars in damages for the majority shareholders.

Nine of the 13 defendents accused of embezzlement and other offences are present in the UAE, while three others are being tried in absentia. One of them, BCCI founder Agha Hassan Abedi, a Pakistani, died last year of old age.

Abu Dhabi, the main oil producing emirate in the UAE, controlled 77 percent of BCCI before it was shut worldwide in July 1991 for massive fraud. The closure of one of the world's leading monetary institutions triggered the biggest financial scandal in modern history.

Abu Dhabi has offered 1.8 billion dollars in compensation for the nearly 250,000 depositors and other creditors of BCCI.-APP