New twist in the Takieddine affair. According to’France Media Agency (AFP), Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is summoned for possible indictment in the investigation into the 2020 retraction of intermediary Ziad Takieddine, who accused her husband Nicolas Sarkozy of having financed his 2007 presidential campaign with Libyan funds.
According to a source close to the case,AFPthe model and singer faces prosecution for receiving stolen goods, conspiracy to commit fraud in court as part of an organized gang and for the corruption of Lebanese judicial personnel.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy could emerge from this interrogation, the date of which has not been specified, as an indictment or with the more favourable status of assisted witness.
Heard twice by investigators
The judicial investigation opened in May 2021 looks at the possible attempt by a dozen protagonists to deceive French justice in the Libyan case, the main part of which will be judged in early 2025.
The former president was indicted in October on suspicion of having approved these maneuvers. In April, his lawyers filed a request to have this measure annulled.
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His wife has already been questioned twice by investigators from the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Fiscal Offenses (OCLCIFF): first as a witness in June 2023, then as a suspect in early May.
A hidden telephone line
Recently, according to elements of the investigation including theAFP was made aware of and partly revealed by The Parisianit is a phone of the former paparazzi priestess, “Mimi” Marchand (real name Michèle Marchand), also implicated, which has increased the charges against the 56-year-old artist.
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The financial investigating judge in charge of the case believes he has found evidence of Mimi Marchand’s use of a secret telephone line, which the person concerned denies. According to the judge, she sent messages via this mobile phone to the former presidential couple about the progress of the operation.
During her hearing at the beginning of May, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy indicated that «feel responsible» of the accusation of her husband.
“It’s me who should be indicted,” she said, accusing Mimi Marchand of having “used my husband’s name and mine in this affair to give himself weight with his friends”. Mimi Marchand, she continues, “is clever, but not necessarily in the truth […] She is very manipulative.”When contacted, the singer’s lawyer, Paul Mallet, did not respond to theAFP.
