State Charges Against Kohl Dropped

The legal proceedings against Chancellor Helmut Kohl filed by a state prosecutor in the Rhineland city of Koblenz have been dropped because of insufficient evidence, a West German government spokesman said Wednesday.

Spokesman Friedhelm Ost said that Koblenz Chief Prosecutor Hans Seeliger ruled that the evidence accumulated during the three-month investigation did not warrant any official charges being filed.

The announcement removes a political cloud hanging over the head of the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, political observers said, and improves his chances of reelection next January.

Kohl still faces a similar proceeding launched in Bonn, but legal specialists said the evidence was much weaker in the Bonn case and that those charges, too, are likely to be dropped.

Both investigations involve allegations that the West German leader lied in testimony given to two separate inquiries--one in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the other in the federal Parliament--into whether he accepted illegal political campaign contributions.