Revelations and investigation

In 2012, accusations of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 campaign, launched the previous year by Muammar Gaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam, became clearer: Mediapart published documents affirming that Tripoli allegedly, in 2006, gave its agreement for financing of 50 million euros.

Nicolas Sarkozy files a complaint.

An investigation for "publication of false news" will result in a dismissal.

On May 3, the former Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, imprisoned in Tunisia, affirmed, according to comments reported by his Tunisian lawyers, that Libya had indeed financed Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.

In the evening, a French lawyer claiming to also represent him denies that he made these remarks.

He will rephrase these charges later.

In December, the Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine affirms before a judge that he has proof of this Libyan financing.

On April 19, 2013, the Paris prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation against X.

Guéant's paintings

At the end of April, the Canard Enchaîné reveals that a search of the former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant revealed a payment of 500,000 euros from abroad made in 2008 to an account of the ex-trustee. by Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Mr. Guéant justifies this sum by selling master paintings to a Malaysian lawyer.

On March 7, 2015, the former minister was indicted for forgery and use of forgery, and laundering of tax evasion in an organized gang.

New charges

In September 2016, the notebook of Choukri Ghanem, a former Libyan oil minister who had died four years earlier, was sent to investigators.

He mentions three payments in 2007 intended for Nicolas Sarkozy, totaling at least 6.5 million euros.

On November 15, Ziad Takieddine claims to have given 5 million euros in cash, coming from Libya, in 2006 and 2007 to Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant.

In 2020, Mr. Guéant will have Ziad Takieddine convicted of defamation.

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Mr. Takieddine was indicted on December 7, 2016, for complicity in corruption and influence peddling in particular.

On January 8, 2018, the Franco-Algerian businessman Alexandre Djouhri, suspected of having served as an intermediary, was arrested in London.

Extradited to France, he will be indicted in particular for "active corruption" two years later.

Indictments

On March 21, 2018, Mr. Sarkozy was indicted for "passive corruption, illegal financing of electoral campaigns and concealment of Libyan public funds".

He calls.

On May 29, Eric Woerth, former treasurer of the campaign, was in turn indicted for complicity in illegal financing.

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The indictment of Claude Guéant is aggravated on September 17, in particular with the offense of "passive corruption".

On September 24, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal validated the investigation.

On October 12, Nicolas Sarkozy is again indicted, this time for "criminal association".

Two months later, Claude Guéant and another ex-minister, Brice Hortefeux, will be in turn for this offense.

- Takieddine turnovers -

On November 11, 2020, Ziad Takieddine, on the run in Lebanon, cleared the former head of state in the French press and accused the former investigating judge in charge of the case, Serge Tournaire, of having distorted his remarks. .

But, heard in Beirut by French judges on January 14, 2021, Takieddine again incriminates the former head of state.

On June 5, Mimi Marchand, a figure of the people press, as well as several other people suspected of having worked for Takieddine to retract in November, were indicted in Paris for "witness tampering" in an incidental investigation.

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Again auditioned in November in Lebanon by the Parisian magistrates, Takieddine claims to have been "manipulated" during the interview granted to the press.

At the end of 2021, the Court of Cassation sweeps away the last procedural appeal filed by Nicolas Sarkozy and his relatives against the "Libyan" investigation and validates, at least temporarily, the investigations.

Between September 2021 and June 2022, the investigation into the retraction of Ziad Takieddine is extended to suspicions of attempts to bribe Lebanese magistrates who would have aimed to release from prison one of Gaddafi's sons, Hannibal with the aim that -this produces elements clearing Nicolas Sarkozy.

© 2022 AFP