Carla Bruni heard as a suspect in the investigation into Takieddine’s retraction

JUSTICE – Questioned as a suspect. The singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is heard this Thursday, May 2 in the investigation into the retraction of the intermediary Ziad Takieddine, who until then accused Nicolas Sarkozy of having financed his 2007 presidential campaign with Libyan funds.

In 2020, Ziad Takieddine made a spectacular about-face in an interview with Paris Match And BFMTV, then in a letter sent a month later to the courts. He then assured that Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign had not been financed by the Libyans, a statement contrary to his previous assertions in the file.

This retraction is the subject of a judicial investigation opened in May 2021, in which the wife of the former head of state had already been heard as a witness in June 2023. But this Thursday, the singer and model is questioned again as a suspect by investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF) in Nanterre.

The question of the link with “Mimi” Marchand

At the start of the investigation, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was heard after the paparazzi’s testimony; “ Mimi » Marchand (real name Michèle Marchand), also implicated in the case. To justify trips to the home of the Head of State at key moments of the retraction operation, Michèle Marchand had argued for meetings with her long-time friend, Carla Bruni.

But according to a Source close to the case, the investigating judge has since questioned various elements against him. First of all, a “desire to conceal” by Carla Bruni who “deleted all of the messages she exchanged with Mimi Marchand” on the day the latter was indicted, June 5, 2021.

Then, Carla Bruni is suspected of having helped Michèle Marchand and the paparazzi Sébastien Valiela to obtain a PCR test in mid-October 2020 allowing them to go to Lebanon in order to carry out the interview in which Ziad Takieddine retracts.

Questioned on these elements during his indictment at the beginning of October, Nicolas Sarkozy responded: “At that time, she needs to take a PCR test like millions of French people at that time. My wife helps Michèle Marchand as she helps her friend so that she can go on a trip”. “We are harassed with requests from other people to help them do PCR tests. My wife has nothing to do with it”added the former head of state.

Regarding the messages deleted by his wife on his phone, he emphasized that he had kept his own, adding: “If it was a strategic desire or to conceal, one might ask why her and not me? “.

Nicolas Sarkozy convicted in two cases

This section “retraction” is an incident to the main investigation into suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign, which will be judged in early 2025. In this case, there are now eleven protagonists – including Carla Bruni-Sarkozy – who are suspected of having worked , at varying times and degrees, in this operation which would have mainly aimed to deceive French justice.

Among those accused, in addition to Nicolas Sarkozy and Mimi Marchand, are the intermediary Noël Dubus, already convicted of fraud, and the powerful business leader David Layani. The proceedings against financier Pierre Reynaud, who died in May 2023, have been terminated.

In February, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal to prison, in the case “Bygmalion” over excessive spending in his lost 2012 presidential campaign. In May 2023, he was convicted of corruption and influence peddling in the so-called affair “listenings” (or Bismuth affair). He appealed to the Court of Cassation in these two cases.

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