The Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday March 20th, 2018 as part of an investigation into claims that he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
A legal source with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that Sarkozy was being held at the Nanterre police station, northwest of Paris. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on or discuss the matter publicly.
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One of the former French president’s lawyers has not respond to a message from the AP seeking comment. Until now, Sarkozy, 63, has vehemently and repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign.
The investigation which has been going on since 2013 gained more support when a French-Lebanese businessman, Ziad Takieddine told the online investigative site, Mediapart in 2016 that he delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros ($6.2 million) in cash to Nicholas Sarkozy and his former chief of staff by name, Claude Gueant.
The alleged sum of 50 million euros overall known to have been secretly handed by Gadhafi’s regime to Ex-President Sarkozy was more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time for the 2007 French Presidential campaign, being 21 million euros. These alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of campaign funds.
Sarkozy, who was the President of the French Republic from 2007-2012, had more of a complex relationship with late Colonel Gadhafi, so much so that soon after winning the French presidency, he invited the great Libyan leader for a state visit and welcomed him to France with high honors.
But as life isn’t fair as usual, Sarkozy shamelessly put France in the forefront of the NATO-led airstrikes against Gadhafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple Gadhafi’s regime back in 2011.
In an interview with Mediapart French-Lebanese businessman, Takieddine said he was given 5 million euros in Tripoli by Gadhafi’s intelligence chief in late 2006 and 2007 and that he handed the money to Sarkozy and Gueant in suitcases on three occasions. He added that the cash transfers took place in the French Interior Ministry, while Sarkozy was still interior minister.
For years now, Takieddine has been wrapped up in his own problems with French justice which center mainly on allegations that he provided illegal funding to the campaign of conservative politician, Edouard Balladur for his 1995 presidential election campaign — through commissions from the sale of French submarines to Pakistan.
Takieddine made his claims when Sarkozy was campaigning to be the presidential candidate of the right-wing The Republicans party. Sarkozy lost in the first round.
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In a film published on investigative news website Mediapart, the businessman, who introduced the two leaders, claimed he handed over cases of cash to Sarkozy and his chief of staff. He told Mediapart: “I have discovered things that should no longer be hidden. I wish to denounce the mafia state in which we are currently living.”
Sarkozy and Gueant have both denied the allegations, and the former French leader did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
According to Le Monde newspaper, investigators have provided magistrates with a report detailing how cash circulated within Sarkozy’s campaign team.
In January, a French businessman suspected of playing a role in the financing scheme, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London on a French warrant “for offenses of fraud and money laundering.” Le Monde said French investigators also have several documents seized at his home in Switzerland in their possession.
Note that Nicholas Sarkozy has faced other legal troubles. Back in February last year, he was ordered to stand trial after being handed preliminary charges for suspected illegal overspending on his failed 2012 re-election campaign. No doubt he has appealed the decision.
The allegations against him first emerged in 2013, when the French courts opened an inquiry into the suspected illegal financing of Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign with a view to possible charges for “active and passive corruption, misuse of power, forgery, abuse of public money, money laundering, and complicity in and concealment of these offences”. Sarkozy has not been charged, but he can now be held and questioned by police for up to 48 hours. He may then appear before a judge to face charges.
Sarkozy’s detention comes after his former associate, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London and later released on bail. Djouhri was returned to pre-trial detention in February after France issued a second warrant for his arrest, ahead of a hearing scheduled for 28 March.
A source close to the inquiry also told AFP that Former minister Brice Hortefeux, a former top aide of Sarkozy’s during his presidency, was also questioned on Tuesday as part of the inquiry on Tuesday but not detained.
Hortefeux tweeted that the precisions he gave to investigators “should help put an end to a series of mistakes and lies.” He has been a focus of the inquiry which opened after earlier claims by the late Libyan ruler and his son Saif al-Islam that they provided funds for Sarkozy’s election effort.
The detention of the former French president also comes after Bechir Saleh, Gaddafi’s former finance chief, published a book supporting the funding claims. He recently told Le Monde:
“Gaddafi said he had financed Sarkozy. Sarkozy said he had not been funded. I believe more Gaddafi than Sarkozy.”
This comes after officers from the Central Office for Combating Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF) submitted a report to magistrates, in which it detailed how cash circulated within the Sarkozy campaign team and how it allegedly flowed from Djouhri, then close to Saleh, to Gueant.
Sarkozy has previously dismissed the allegations against him, referring to them 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.”
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While we appreciate the great achievements of the late patriotic Libyan Guide & leader, Muammar Gaddafi and keep in mind the unfinished illustrious projects he had for Libya, and Africa as a whole, let us know your take on this issue as the investigation and the stories develop.
