Ziad Takieddine in 2019. -

Louise MERESSE / SIPA

Unexpected turnaround in the case concerning the alleged Libyan funding of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007. Ziad Takieddine, one of the main prosecution witnesses against the former president, withdrew his accusations, in a video unveiled by Paris Match and BFM TV.

"I say it loud and clear, this Judge Tournaire [the former investigating judge in charge of the case] was kind enough to turn it around in his own way and make me say things that are totally contrary to the words I said ( …): There was no funding for Sarkozy's presidential campaign ”declared this sulphurous intermediary, on the run in Beirut when he was sentenced in June in France in the financial aspect of the Karachi affair.

"The truth is finally out"

The investigations into the Libyan case, opened after the publication by Mediapart in 2012, in the period between the two presidential rounds, of a document supposed to prove that the victorious campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy five years earlier had been financed by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, were validated on September 24 by the Paris Court of Appeal.

This rejected a series of nullity actions formulated by the Sarkozy camp.

After eight years of investigation, the magistrates are wondering about a possible "corruption pact": did Nicolas Sarkozy "leave his closest collaborators and political supporters, over whom he had authority and who acted in his name, namely Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, and unofficial intermediaries, Ziad Takieddine and Alexandre Djouhri, act to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support for the financing of his 2007 electoral campaign, at the rate of several million euros ?

Faced with the judges and "the total futility of these accusations", Nicolas Sarkozy had had another reading.

According to him, Ziad Takieddine, central sulfur intermediary in this file, would have abused “Libyan funds to divert them for his profit”, while claiming that they were intended for the campaign of the future head of state.

This Thursday evening, he also welcomed on Facebook the turnaround of the intermediary: "the truth is finally emerging".

Nicolas Sarkozy is currently indicted for "concealment of embezzlement of public funds", "passive corruption", "illegal financing of electoral campaign", and recently for "criminal association".

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  • Justice

  • Funding

  • Libya

  • Indictment

  • Nicolas sarkozy