Lebanon: businessman Ziad Takieddine released under judicial supervision in Beirut

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine in Paris in October 2011. AP - Remy de la Mauviniere

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a former prosecution witness against Nicolas Sarkozy in the case of the Libyan financing of the former president's presidential campaign, has been released under judicial supervision in Beirut.

He was arrested last week on the basis of a notice issued by Interpol.

Publicity

Read more

With our correspondent in Beirut,

After being questioned on Monday, December 7 by the Attorney General, Ziad Takieddine was released

 But his Lebanese and French passports were confiscated and it is forbidden to leave Lebanese territory.

Next step: the prosecutor will ask the French authorities to transfer his case to see if the charges against him justify a trial in Lebanon.

Ziad Takieddine was sentenced in France to five years in prison in a case of kickbacks linked to arms contracts with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

It is however unlikely that he will be handed over to Paris because Lebanon, which has not signed an extradition agreement with France, does not deliver its nationals.

Since taking refuge in Beirut last June, Ziad Takieddine has been talked about a lot.

He spent two weeks in jail for a complaint filed against him by his former Lebanese lawyer who accuses him of non-payment of fees and defamation.

The day after his release on November 11,

in an interview with two French media.

Last week, he was heard by the Financial Crimes Bureau in another case when officers realized he was the subject of an Interpol request for arrest.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Lebanon

• Justice