Guy Spitaels, Belgian socialist leader, has died
BRUSSELS — Guy Spitaels, a Belgian socialist leader who in 1998 was convicted of corruption along with former NATO secretary general Willy Claes, has died. He was 80.
His party said he died of a brain tumor. Mr. Spitaels held pivotal political jobs in a career fraught with controversy in Belgium’s socialist ranks.
He was leader of his party in the 1980s when it became embroiled in a bribery scandal linked to the purchase of Italian helicopters for the air force.
He always denied any wrongdoing.
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