Franco-Algerian businessman Alexandre Djouhri, at the heart of the investigation into suspicions of Libyan funding for Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007, was placed on Friday, January 31, in pre-trial detention, we learned at the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF).
Charged during the day, notably for "active corruption", "forgery and use of forgery" and "complicity and concealment of embezzlement of public funds by a person charged with a public service mission", Alexandre Djouhri was imprisoned a few hours later by decision of a liberty and detention judge, in accordance with the PNF's requisitions.
A former close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy
Claimed for years by French justice, he was handed over Thursday evening to the authorities at Roissy airport from London, where he was arrested in January 2018 under European arrest warrants.
After a long legal battle, a British court had confirmed on January 22 the decision, made in February 2019 by the Westminster court, to hand it over to France.
>> Takieddine against Djouhri: The rivalry of two men of two men of the shadows, at the heart of the Libyan affair
Aged 60, Alexandre Djouhri, close to former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and then the ex-minister of Nicolas Sarkozy, Claude Guéant, was eagerly awaited by French magistrates, the investigations having revealed several suspicious financial flows implicating him in the Libyan affair.
His name appeared in particular in the investigation into the sale in 2009 of a villa located in Mougins, on the Côte d'Azur, to a Libyan fund managed by Bachir Saleh, a former dignitary of the Ghadafi regime.
He is suspected of having been, behind several nominees, the true owner and of having sold it at an overvalued price, making it possible to hide possible hidden payments from the regime.
"I have never had a villa as a nominee"
"It is imagination and machination, I have never had a villa as a nominee and I have never sold a villa to Bachir Saleh", he defended himself last March on LCI.
Triggered by the publication by Mediapart in 2012 of a document supposed to prove the Libyan financing of the 2007 campaign, the investigation notably led to the indictment for "passive corruption" of Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant, who both contest the validity of the investigations.
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