Guéant, Hortefeux and the Takieddine poison

If Ziad Takieddine did not exist, we probably would not have to invent him. The intermediary who took refuge in Lebanon to escape a prison sentence handed down in the so-called Karachi affair, the central defendant in the “Libyan financing” trial, is also the poison. He implicated Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, and Claude Guéant, his chief of staff, claiming among other things to have delivered them briefcases of freshly packaged cash in Tripoli.

He has changed his version so much that each word that comes out of his mouth must be repeated seven times on the record before being taken — or not — seriously. But it nonetheless remains at the center of the debates opened on January 6 before the Paris Court.

What is immediately striking is the exploration of the underworld that lurks in the antechambers of power. These “intermediaries” are sometimes received under the auspices of the Republic. Like Ziad Takieddine, they also receive powerful people like Claude Guéant in chic hotel lobbies. Apparently valuable for parallel diplomacy, no one knows them in court anymore.

« M. Takieddine presented himself as a businessman »remembers Claude Guéant. It's vague but, « obviously », he got « a little informed » — not much. For example, it escaped the number two of the Ministry of the Interior that the« businessman » got arrested…