Paris (AFP)

The boss of the paparazzi agency BestImage, Mimi Marchand, was indicted on Saturday, in particular for "witness tampering", in the case of the alleged Libyan financing of the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007, announced on Saturday her lawyer at AFP.

Michèle Marchand, nicknamed "Mimi", was also indicted for "criminal association with a view to committing an organized gang scam" and placed under judicial control.

"She firmly disputes the alleged facts", underlined Me Caroline Toby.

This figure of the press people, close to the Macron couple, had been taken into custody Thursday in a judicial investigation opened after an interview granted last November by Ziad Takieddine to a journalist from the weekly Paris Match, who had surrendered in Lebanon with a photographer from BestImage.

In this interview given in November 2020, Ziad Takieddine withdrew his statements against Nicolas Sarkozy, after accusing him of having received money for his presidential campaign from the Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi.

"The truth is out," the former head of state immediately triumphed.

Two months later, questioned on January 14 in Beirut by examining magistrates Aude Buresi and Marc Sommerer, in charge of the Libyan case, the intermediary, known for his versatility, declared that he did not confirm "the words" of the interview, claiming that they had been "distorted" by Paris Match, which "belongs to a friend of Sarkozy".

Mimi Marchand "acted as a journalist who had the exclusivity of this interview with Mr. Takieddine," said Mr. Toby on Saturday.

"She only organized the photos and the interview, within the scope of her job," she explained.

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Five other people were also taken into police custody Thursday in this investigation.

The journalist of Paris Match, François de Labarre, had been released in the evening, without prosecution at this stage.

Among the four others, still Saturday at the end of the morning being presented to justice for an indictment, are the advertiser Arnaud de la Villesbrunne, former director of the Publicis agency, the businessman Pierre Reynaud and Noël Dubus, a man already convicted of fraud.

According to Le Parisien, Noël Dubus, who went twice to Beirut to meet Mr. Takeddine there before his retraction, would have benefited from suspicious payments, via Mr. Villesbrunne, who was one of the providers of Mr. Sarkozy.

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According to the daily Liberation, the businessman Pierre Reynaud would have advanced to Mr. Dubus funds to be given to Mr. Takieddine.

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