Sir, - The recent controversy surrounding Helmut Kohl and the CDU in Germany has served to highlight an interesting contrast: how politicians and their cohorts who don't follow the rules they set are treated in different countries.
In Britain, Jonathan Aitken paid the price for his misdemeanours, as did Ron Davies and Neil Hamilton. Your correspondent Lara Marlowe has recently highlighted the plight of "VIP" prisoners in France, while in Spain Jose Barrionuevo, a former Interior Minister, was imprisoned for organising state-funded and controlled death squads. In Italy, Bettino Craxi had to settle for never again seeing the homeland that gave him so much.
In Ireland, despite a myriad of investigations, committees and tribunals, no one has been held to account for the crimes that they have committed for that is what they are.
One could reel off a list of those who have escaped punishment so far, but as I write. I realise that the list is simply too long. - Yours, etc.,
Alvaro Reynolds, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4.