Paris (AFP)
Thierry Gaubert, former collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy, was indicted last Friday in the investigation of suspicions of Libyan funding for the 2007 campaign of the former president, we learned on Monday from judicial sources and close to the folder.
Placed in police custody Thursday, Mr. Gaubert was indicted the next day for "criminal association", suspected of having touched funds from the Libyan Gaddafi regime which could have fueled Mr. Sarkozy's campaign, according to these sources confirming information from the weekly Le Point.
By an additional indictment signed at the end of January, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office had extended the investigations to these facts of "association of criminals", according to the judicial source.
This opens the way to the indictment of new suspects as well as a worsening of the prosecution of the protagonists already involved, including Mr. Sarkozy.
Thierry Gaubert, 68, was a collaborator of Nicolas Sarkozy when the latter was at the Ministry of the Budget in the government of Edouard Balladur (1993-1995).
He is suspected of having received on February 8, 2006 a transfer of 440,000 euros from the Rossfield company belonging to the intermediary Ziad Takieddine, another indicted, as Mediapart had unveiled last December.
According to online media, six million euros of Libyan funds were collected by Rossfield in 2006.
"Mr. Gaubert is indicted for political financing as in the Karachi case and, as in the Karachi case, the prosecution will abandon this thesis at the hearing", reacted his lawyer, François Esclatine, joined by the AFP.
During the trial of the financial component of the Karachi case in October, the prosecution considered that there was no evidence that Mr. Gaubert acted as a "mule" to transport 10 million francs to the account of the campaign of Edouard Balladur, unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1995.
The judgment of the Paris court on this file is due on April 22.
As for the funds paid in 2006 by Rossfield to an account in the Bahamas of Mr. Gaubert, they were mentioned during the trial in December of the latter and his ex-wife for tax fraud and money laundering, the decision being expected on March 19. .
Mr. Gaubert had justified this transfer of funds by real estate investments in Colombia and denied any link with Libya.
According to Le Point, he conceded "having withdrawn in cash, in several installments, a total sum of 180,000 euros between 2006 and 2007", to finance his lifestyle.
Investigators suspect that this money could have funded the campaign budget of Nicolas Sarkozy, at whose headquarters circulated at least 30,000 to 35,000 euros in cash according to the investigations.
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