Police questions former French president over getting campaign financing from Ghaddafi

Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, was taken into police custody on Tuesday to be questioned about allegations that part of his victorious 2007 campaign was illegally financed by Libya’s then-government.

Sarkozy can be detained for up to 48 hours, after which he may have to appear in front of the judge who opened the probe back in 2013. The judge will then decide whether or not to put the former head of state under formal investigation.

The allegations have plagued Sarkozy ever since 2012, when the news website Mediapart published a document alleged to emanate from the former head of the Libyan secret services, promising Sarkozy some €50 million for his campaign.

In 2016, French-Lebanese businessman and arms broker Ziad Takieddine said in several interviews that he had once personally brought €5 million in cash to Sarkozy, who was then campaigning for president as interior minister. Takieddine also named Claude Guéant, who had been Sarkozy’s chief of staff and later became interior minister.

Takieddine’s allegations matched what Libya’s head of military intelligence under Gaddafi had told the country’s new authorities.

The allegations of Libyan money financing his campaign never surfaced during Sarkozy’s presidency. As president, he would have been covered by immunity from prosecution for the length of his term.

According to judicial sources, the decision to take Sarkozy into custody may indicate that judges have made inroads in their almost five-year investigation — a timeframe in line with the French judiciary’s glacial pace.

On judges’ request, police officers have also searched the Swiss house of a controversial broker in arms and oil deals, Alexandre Djouhri, arrested in London earlier this year and currently detained pending his extradition to France.

 

Source: Politco.com