Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 other people are being tried by the Paris Criminal Court in the so-called Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign affair.
It is a titanic affair, full of twists and turns, which has spawned other cases in the affair. The case of suspicion of illegal financing of the 2007 presidential campaign by Libyan funds arrives this Monday, January 6 before the Paris criminal court. A trial which marks the return of Nicolas Sarkozy before judges.
The former President of the Republic is on trial for “illegal financing of an electoral campaign”, “passive corruption”, “concealment of embezzlement of public funds” and “criminal association”.
In the 557 pages of the order for reference, the judges note “the corruption pact established between Nicolas Sarkozy and Muammar Gaddafi” and consider that the former was perfectly informed of the “actions which, most of the time, were initiated by (his ) close”. Actions which could not “be undertaken without the approval and perfect knowledge of the facts” of the principal concerned.
As in the other cases targeting him, Nicolas Sarkozy completely rejects the accusations concerning him: no, he did not receive a single cent from the regime of the former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his victorious campaign of 2007. Definitively condemned to a year in prison last December in the so-called “Paul Bismuth” affair, he will appear “determined” before the judges for a long trial which will last four months.
“The Libyan regime had no special relations with France,” insists Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer, Me Christophe Ingrain. “The court must focus on the reality of the facts and distance itself from this vague theory.”
Suitcases of notes and transfers
Thirteen years after the revelations of Mediapartand ten years of investigation later, 13 people were referred to the Paris Criminal Court. In 2012, the online investigative media published a note from the Libyan secret services tending to prove that the regime paid 50 million euros to the Sarkozy camp shortly before the start of the campaign. An assertion which adds to the declarations of Gaddafi's son a year earlier who mentioned for the first time, in an interview with Euronews, Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign.
In 2013, the French justice system took up the case and opened a judicial investigation on April 19 for, in particular, “corruption” and “influence peddling”. The judges also rely on the statements of the controversial Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takkiedine who, questioned by Judge Van Ryumbeke a few months earlier in another case, claimed to have proof of this financing. He then explained that he had handed over three suitcases of tickets to the Ministry of the Interior, then occupied by a certain… Nicolas Sarkozy.
In this case, those very close to the person concerned, starting with Claude Guéant, his chief of staff in Beauvau and campaign director in 2007, are implicated. During a search, investigators discovered a payment of 500,000 euros from abroad in one of his bank accounts. Claude Guéant always defended himself by asserting that the money came from the resale of two Flemish paintings.
The banker responsible for this transaction was, however, identified as Wahib Nacer. He also happens to be the wealth manager of Bachir Saleh, boss of the Libyan investment fund in Africa and former private secretary of Muammar Gaddafi. They too will appear from this Monday, just like two other ex-members of the Gaddafi clan.
Diplomatic counterparts
Other elements have come to support the suspicions of the justice system, which is trying, in particular, to determine whether Nicolas Sarkozy was aware of these payments. Ziad Takieddine, since convicted of defamation, had publicly assured that he had given the money to Claude Guéant, when he was chief of staff in Beauvau, sometimes in the presence of the then minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. In a card belonging to a former Libyan dignitary who died in April 2012, inscriptions were found listing several hidden payments to the candidate for a sum of 6.5 million euros.
“Several people close to Nicolas Sarkozy have consistently acted as intermediaries, sometimes official – Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux – sometimes unofficial – Alexandre Djouhri and Ziad Takieddine – in order to obtain financial support from the Libyan authorities”, they also said. writes the two investigating magistrates. This financial support was provided in exchange for “diplomatic, economic and judicial compensation” for the benefit of the Libyan regime.
One of these advantages requested from the candidate who became president was, according to the judges, to try to cancel an arrest warrant issued at the time by the French courts against the head of intelligence of the Gaddafi regime, Abdallah Senussi. The latter is considered to be at the origin of the explosion in 1989 of a plane of the French company UTA above the Nigerien desert, the victim of a bomb attack. All 170 passengers and crew members died. Libya agreed in 2004 to compensate the families, recognizing this attack.
To this intervention was added, according to families of victims of the attack, the “rehabilitation enterprise” of Muammar Gaddafi welcomed with great fanfare in France after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy. Between twenty and fifty relatives of these victims will ask to become civil parties at the opening of the trial, considering that the Sarkozy clan has blood on its hands.
“Criminal association”
Nicolas Sarkozy has continued his appeals to cancel this investigation and this indictment. Last October, his lawyers requested additional information on the basis of documents discovered in another legal proceeding, namely a note from the General Directorate of Internal Security questioning the veracity of the first “Libyan note” to the origin of the affair. It was still retained by the judges, without making it the central element of the accusation.
“We have a Libyan financing file with no trace of Libyan financing for the presidential campaign, and for good reason, there is no Libyan financing,” denounces Me Christophe Ingrain.
Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer denounces “an unprecedented profusion of means” for this 10-year-long investigation which did not make it possible to determine “the amount of this financing or the currency” allowing these transactions. Concerning the accusations of several ex-Libyan dignitaries, he evokes a form of revenge. “The explanation is classic: because of the Franco-British coalition, then that of NATO, to put an end to the massacre of civilian populations in Libya, all these dignitaries lost their posts,” says Me Ingrain.
Nicolas Sarkozy, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux face up to 10 years in prison, a heavy fine and a ban on civil rights, including the right to vote or stand for election, and to hold public office. Ziad Takieddine, part of whose proceedings are based on his declarations and payments from his bank accounts, is also on trial but he is expected to be absent. An investigation for “witness subordination”, namely the Franco-Lebanese, who returned to his accusations for a time before reiterating them, was opened in parallel. Nicolas Sarkozy is doubly indicted.
