PARIS: French prosecutors have dropped a corruption investigation into the flamboyant son of former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade, his lawyers said on Tuesday, weeks before he stands trial in his own country.
Karim Wade is suspected of having corruptly acquired a multi-million-dollar fortune while his father was in power and is due to be tried in Senegal next month.
Senegalese authorities had also lodged an official complaint in France in 2012 in the belief that part of Wade's alleged $242 million (179 million euro) fortune may have been invested in the country.
The 45-year-old, who has been in custody for over a year, was initially accused of having acquired companies, real estate and a fleet of luxury cars valued at $1.4 billion by corrupt means, but that sum was later reduced.
French prosecutors dropped their probe for lack of sufficient proof, his lawyers said.
The lawyers have described the charges against Wade as "fanciful", saying he only has a fortune of around two million euros, much of which he earned as a trader before he became a minister under his father, holding so much power that he was dubbed the "minister of the universe".
Abdoulaye Wade, who was in office for 12 years, stood down after losing a March 2012 presidential elelection to Macky Sall and his party has since accused the new regime of politically motivated legal attacks on former officials.
His son's lawyers claim that the corruption case had been launched to prevent Wade running in the 2017 presidential election against Sall.
The former president returned home in April after two years in exile in France in order to support his son.
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