“A corrupting pact between Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy” to finance his presidential campaign: in an indictment signed Thursday, May 11, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office requested a trial for the former head of state and 12 others implicated in the affair of the Libyan financing of his presidential campaign of 2007 .
From the first revelations of Mediapart in 2012 to the indictment of Nicolas Sarozy in 2018, “L’Obs” takes up the thread of events in this case which has been going on for eleven years now.
The sequel after the ad
- 2012: Mediapart revelations
On March 12, 2012, the online newspaper Mediapart indicates having had access to a note dated December 20, 2006, according to which THE “campaign finance terms” by Nicolas Sarkozy Would’ve been “settled” to the tune of 50 million euros during the visit to Libya, on October 6, 2005, of the Head of State et of son Minister Delegate for Local Authorities Brice Hortefeux.
At the Sarkozy-Bismuth trial, the last charge of the defense: “You will not be able to condemn a man on the quicksand of these plays”
On April 28, 2012, Mediapart released a second document, dated December 10, 2006 and signed by the head of the Libyan foreign intelligence services, Moussa Koussa. He indicates that the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi has agreed to release 50 million euros to support the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007. This decision would result from an agreement between Brice Hortefeux, the Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, the director of the Libyan intelligence services, and the president of the Libyan African Investment Fund.
The documents disseminated were declared authentic by the courts in June 2016. The complaint for forgery filed against Mediapart by Nicolas Sarkozy therefore ended in a dismissal. However, the courts believe that the documents are not enough to prove that the transaction took place.
- 2014: the eavesdropping affair
Nicolas Sarkozy’s phone is tapped as part of the investigation. These reveal, in March 2014, conversations between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog on mobile phones registered under false names. The two men are suspected of having bribed a magistrate of the Court of Cassation so that he kept them informed of the progress of the judicial investigations concerning them.
The sequel after the ad
Nicolas Sarkozy’s trial: in the secrets of the telephone tapping of the “Bismuth” line
Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty by the Paris Criminal Court on 1is March 2021. Sentenced to three years in prison, one of which is firm, for corruption and influence peddling, he becomes the first former President of the French Republic to be sentenced to firm prison. The sentence is finally suspended by the appeal of Nicolas Sarkozy and the national financial prosecutor’s office.
- 2016: the discovery of the secret notebook of a former Libyan minister
In September 2016, justice obtained the notebook of Choukri Ghanem, former oil minister of Muammar Gaddafi, found drowned the day after the Mediapart revelations. Inside is recorded a series of payments, 6.5 million euros in total, paid for the benefit of Nicolas Sarkozy during his electoral campaign in 2007.
In November 2016, Ziad Takieddine revealed to Mediapart that he had personally delivered 5 million euros from the Libyan regime to the Ministry of the Interior. He says he gave two suitcases to the former Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant, then a third to Nicolas Sarkozy in person.
“The most serious case of the Fifth Republic”: three years suspended sentence against Nicolas Sarkozy at the Bismuth trial
- 2018: Nicolas Sarkozy and his associates indicted
On March 21, 2018, following a 48-hour interrogation, Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted for passive corruption, concealment of embezzlement of Libyan public funds and illegal financing of an electoral campaign. The former head of state is placed under judicial supervision and vigorously contests the charges.
The sequel after the ad
In May, Éric Woerth, treasurer of Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign in 2007, was indicted for “complicity in illegal election campaign financing”. An anti-corruption police report designates the“extent of cash circulation” in the president’s entourage in 2007.
In September, Claude Guéant is also indicted for “complicity in illegal election campaign financing”also for passive corruption, complicity and concealment of this crime, and concealment of embezzlement of public funds.
“Is this the corruption of the century? “: at the appeal trial of the Bismuth affair, the impetuous defense of Nicolas Sarkozy
- 2023: the prosecution calls for a trial for Sarkozy
In a 425-page indictment, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office requests a trial for 13 people, including Nicolas Sarkozy and three of his former ministers.
Thanks to testimonies, Choukri Ghanem’s notebook and Ziad Takieddine’s computer archives, the public prosecutor believes that they have a “a set of converging testimonies from former Libyan dignitaries on the fact that Nicolas Sarkozy (…), in October 2005, asked Muammar Gaddafi for hidden financial support” for his 2007 presidential campaign.
The sequel after the ad
For magistrates, “several relatives of Nicolas Sarkozy have consistently acted as intermediaries, sometimes official, sometimes unofficial”. And Nicolas Sarkozy? “These acts, which most of the time were initiated by (his) relatives, could not, by nature, be committed without the approval and the perfect knowledge of the latter”decides the public prosecutor.
The final decision on a trial will be taken by the financial investigating magistrates, probably before September.
