Fraud case against Bhutto dropped

MADRID: Spanish prosecutors have asked a court to shelve a probe into alleged money laundering by former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, citing a lack of evidence, officials said yesterday.

Bhutto, her husband Asif Ali Zardari and several others were investigated after suspicions were raised by foreign currency operations at a bank in the eastern Spanish town of Onteniente and the purchase of a house in Spain.

But Joaquin Banos, spokesman for the prosecutor's office at the Superior Court in the eastern region of Valencia, said prosecutors were unable to find sufficient evidence of wrongdoing during more than two years of investigations.