Nicolas Sarkozy Indicted for Concealment of Witness Tampering in Libyan Financing Investigation

Published on : 06/10/2023 – 13:19Modified : 06/10/2023 – 13:45

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Questioned for several days by two investigating judges, Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted on Friday October 6 in the investigation into possible fraudulent maneuvers to exonerate him from suspicions of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.

The former president is suspected of having participated in an operation aimed at obtaining the retraction of the accusations made against him by the sulfurous Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine.

The former head of state (2007-2012), who arrived by car around 9:40 a.m. at the Paris judicial court, was indicted for concealment of witness tampering and criminal association with a view to preparing Judgment scams in an organized gang.

Nicolas Sarkozy “is firmly determined to assert his rights, establish the truth and defend his honor”, wrote his lawyers, Jean-Michel Darrois and Christophe Ingrain, in a press release sent to AFP.

This indictment opens the way to a possible new trial for the leading figure of the French right. It was taken after around thirty hours of interrogation in total over three and a half days, led by two financial magistrates responsible for this judicial investigation opened in May 2021 on this operation, called “Saving Sarkozy” by the one of the defendants.

By this indictment, the judges mean that they believe they have sufficient serious or consistent evidence as to his participation in the maneuvers developed by at least nine other protagonists involved to varying degrees and times, possibly by giving them his approval.

Among those accused, the queen of the paparazzi Mimi Marchand, the intermediary Noël Dubus, already convicted of fraud, the powerful business leader David Layani, etc. The proceedings against the financier Pierre Reynaud, who died in May, are over.

Read alsoLibyan financing: “Mimi” Marchand, celebrity press figure, indicted

A 600,000 plan?

The first step of the operation would have first consisted of obtaining the retraction of the accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy from the sulphurous Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine, at the end of 2020 in exchange for possible remuneration.

This change of heart gave rise to a resounding interview on BFMTV and Paris Match, the starting point of the investigation.

Then, in the first half of 2021, some of those accused would have tried to obtain proof that the resounding Libyan document published between two rounds of the 2012 presidential election by Mediapart and mentioning financing to the tune of 50 million euros was a fake.

According to the judicial source, Nicolas Sarkozy was also placed under assisted witness status for the offense of participation in a criminal association with a view to committing the offense of active corruption of foreign judicial personnel in Lebanon.

Certain protagonists of this operation are in fact suspected of having tried to bribe Lebanese magistrates so that they would release a Gaddafi son detained in this country, so that the family of the late Libyan dictator would facilitate the exoneration of Nicolas Sarkozy.

For investigators, according to recently established figures, at least 608,000 euros could have been used for the entire operation, the fraudulent content of which the protagonists dispute.

Read alsoTakieddine vs Djouhri: two shadowy men at the heart of the Libyan affair

“Neither near nor far”

Heard in June by Oclciff investigators, specializing in financial affairs, the ex-president certainly said he had been informed by Mimi Marchand in October 2020, that is to say a month before the information was public, of a Ziad Takieddine’s wish to change version.

But according to his hearings revealed by Libération and consulted by AFP, Nicolas Sarkozy assured that “the very idea that I could push directly or indirectly for the financing of nickel-plated feet is a crazy idea”.

“No concrete material element, telephony, can incriminate (him) in this madness, neither near nor far,” guaranteed the former head of state.

Questioned at length about his diary and telephone calls at the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, which suggest meetings or conversations at key moments with protagonists in the case, Nicolas Sarkozy mentioned a few “coincidences” but denied any significant contact.

For him, “this whole little gang has only one concern: to show off to each other” by pretending to be in contact with him.

This decision by the magistrates adds to the already busy legal agenda of Nicolas Sarkozy, who will be in his stronghold of Neuilly-sur-Seine on Saturday morning to promote his latest book “Le temps des combats” (Ed. Fayard).

In addition to the Libyan financing trial, scheduled for early 2025, he will be tried in November on appeal in the Bygmalion case. The so-called “Bismuth” case could be the subject of a new trial, for procedural reasons.

With AFP