BERLIN — Helmut Kohl rejected charges Thursday that he accepted bribes as chancellor and blasted his opponents for a "slanderous attempt" to darken his record as the architect of German unification.
Testifying before a parliamentary inquiry into a campaign funding scandal, a defiant Kohl said he never accepted money for political favors and said the investigation was a nefarious attempt by opponents to take revenge on him for his long reign.
But Kohl, who led the country for 16 years, admitted again he took $1 million in illegal campaign donations. He refused to identify the names of the donors, although he said they were all German citizens and had declared the money on their tax returns.
"I have no knowledge of any bribery," Kohl said in a 75-minute statement to the panel formed to investigate charges that his government sold favors. "It didn't happen.
"This has been an unprecedented attempt to defame me through inaccurate reports, insinuations and twisting of the facts to criminalize me and cast the 16 good and successful years we had in a dark light," Kohl said.
The former chancellor, who is the target of a separate fraud investigation by state prosecutors, said on several occasions under questioning that he could not remember the details of many of the financial contributions and transactions during his four-term administration.
Kohl provided detailed explanations for the political justification for most of the controversial moves he ordered.
The funding scandal has ravaged Kohl's reputation as a statesman.