Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer will request the hearing of a new witness in the investigation into allegations of financing by the former Libyan regime of Gaddafi Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007, has he announced Sunday to AFP.
This man, who presents himself as a former collaborator of Ziad Takieddine in the Journal du Dimanche , says that the Franco-Lebanese businessman held, before its publication by Mediapart, the controversial note mentioning this funding.
According to El-Mahfoud Ladib, Ziad Takieddine kept this note in a pocket, with "five pages of Libyan letterhead". "One of these documents was the one that was later published by Mediapart, where Sarkozy was talking about $ 50 million" and "the fifth sheet was blank," he adds. The weekly, which advances the thesis of a "machination" against the former head of state, said to have confirmed these remarks by another source, whose identity is not disclosed.
This document, dated December 10, 2006 and addressed to the former treasurer of the Libyan regime, Bechir Saleh, was published on April 28, 2012 by Mediapart, between the two rounds of the presidential election.
He claimed that Tripoli had agreed to finance for "50 million euros" the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.
"Finally the Truth!", Reacts Nicolas Sarkozy
Asked by AFP, Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, announced that he would write to the Paris public prosecutor and the national financial prosecutor on Monday to have El-Mahfoud Ladib auditioned. He also denounced "a conspiracy" hatched in particular to lose the presidential election of 2012 to his client. "Finally the truth!" tweeted Nicolas Sarkozy.
"This information is totally false, one may wonder why they have not been brought to justice rather than in the press.This is a whimsical testimony among many others on this issue," he said. from AFP Me Elise Arfi, the lawyer of Ziad Takieddine. The latter also assured not to know El-Mahfoud Ladib. Nicolas Sarkozy has always claimed that the note was a false and complained but Mediapart has benefited from a dismissal twice.
Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant indicted in this case
In the investigation into allegations of financing by the former regime of Gaddafi of his 2007 campaign, the former Minister and Secretary General of the Elysee Claude Gueant and Nicolas Sarkozy have been indicted, including for "passive bribery "and" concealment of embezzlement of public funds "in this procedure which is the subject of appeals before the Court of Appeal.
Ziad Takieddine, who claimed to have transported between November 2006 and early 2007 "a total of five million euros" in suitcases on three trips between Tripoli and Paris, was indicted for "complicity in corruption and trafficking of 'active and passive influence'.