Sarkozy held for ‘Gaddafi funding’

Paris, March 20 

French ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody today and questioned over allegations that late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi financed his 2007 election campaign via suitcases stuffed with cash, a source close to the inquiry told AFP.

Sarkozy was detained early this morning and was being questioned by prosecutors specialising in corruption, money laundering and tax evasion at their office in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.

The 63-year-old had until now refused to respond to summons for questioning in the case, one of several legal probes that have dogged the right-winger since he left office after one term in 2012.

Sarkozy’s detention was first reported by the Mediapart investigative news site and French daily Le Monde. AFP’s source said Brice Hortefeux, a top government minister during Sarkozy’s presidency, was also questioned today as part of the inquiry.

Sarkozy has been a focus of the inquiry opened in 2013 by magistrates investigating earlier claims by late Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam that they provided funds for Sarkozy’s election effort.

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as the claims of vindictive Libyan regime members furious over his participation in the US-led military intervention that ended Gaddafi’s 41-year rule and led to his death.

But the case drew heightened scrutiny in November 2016 when a Franco-Lebanese businessman admitted delivering three cash-stuffed suitcases from the Libyan leader as contributions towards Sarkozy’s first presidential run.

In an interview with the investigative website Mediapart, Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Sarkozy’s campaign.

Each time he carried a suitcase containing 1.5-2 million euros ($1.8-2.5 million) in 200-euro and 500-euro notes, Takieddine claimed, saying he was given the money by Gaddafi’s military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant father who takes a hard line on Islam and French identity, was nicknamed the “bling-bling” president during his time in office for his flashy displays of wealth. When asked about the allegations by Takieddine during a televised debate, Sarkozy called the question “disgraceful” and said the businessman was a “liar” who had been convicted “countless times for defamation”.

Investigating magistrates have recommended Sarkozy face trial on separate charges of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid.

Franco-Lebanese bizman did him in

• France opened an inquiry into the Libya case in 2013, after reports by French website Mediapart based on claims by a Franco-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine (pic), who said he had transferred 5 million euros from Gaddafi’s former intelligence chief to Sarkozy’s campaign director
• The Libya inquiry has largely focused on the evidence provided by Takieddine, who is himself under investigation in a separate affair of arms sales to Pakistan in the 1990s
• Sarkozy’s lawyer at the time, Thierry Herzog, dismissed Takieddine’s claims and produced a copy of a witness statement to police by Takieddine in 2012 in which the businessman said he had last seen Sarkozy in November 2003

French leader Dogged for years by political scandals

• Nicolas Sarkozy has been dogged for years by political scandals, but none has led to a conviction. He faces up to a year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros if convicted, but he is appealing the decision to send him to trial
• Only one other French president-Jacques Chirac-has been tried in France’s Fifth Republic, which was founded in 1958. He was give a two-year suspended jail term in 2011 over a fake jobs scandal
• Sarkozy failed with a bid to run again for president in November 2016 and has stepped back from frontline politics, although he remains a powerful figure behind the scenes at the right-wing Republicans party

— AFP