More French indictments are expected over alleged kickbacks from the 2002 sale of two Scorpene-class submarines to Malaysia, claim NGOs Suaram and C4.

"We understand from our French lawyers that several more indictments are expected, before the probe wraps up and is brought before an open court," Suaram director Sevan Doraisamy and C4 director Cynthia Gabriel said in a joint statement today.

Indictments under French law are not the same as indictments or charges as understood in American or British common law.

France has a two-tiered court system, and according to Gabriel, the Scorpene case is at the first stage, where an examining magistrate is probing the case...