Carla Bruni is accused of several offenses in the investigation into the retraction of Ziad Takieddine, an intermediary who had accused Nicolas Sarkozy of having financed his 2007 presidential campaign with Libyan funds before retracting.
While 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, in which Nicolas Sarkozy is on trial for “illegal financing of an electoral campaign”, “passive corruption” , “concealment of embezzlement of public funds” and “criminal association”, his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is still indicted in the investigation into the retraction of the intermediary Ziad Takieddine, after being heard by the investigators, on Tuesday July 9, 2024.
Indictment for concealment of witness subordination
She could have had an important role in the “save Sarko” operation, which led to the retraction of Ziad Takieddine in the affair of alleged Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign, and is suspected of “concealment of witness tampering , participation in a criminal association with a view to committing the offense of judgment fraud in an organized gang (with a view to deceiving the magistrates having to rule in the judicial information relating to the suspicions of Libyan financing of her husband's electoral campaign). Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was released last summer from her hearing, with the ban on contacting all the protagonists in this affair, except her husband.
If the singer is now indicted, it is in particular because of her personal and professional links with Michèle Marchand, known as “Mimi Marchand”, popess of the celebrity press, who is accused of having played a major role in the retraction of Ziad Takieddine. As a reminder, the Franco-Lebanese businessman returned to his testimony, the one in which he accused Nicolas Sarkozy of having financed his campaign thanks to funds from Muammar Gaddafi, former Libyan dictator, in the program Further investigation of France 2. To bring about this turnaround, he was offered “millions of euros”, he confided.
The links between Carla Bruni and “Mimi” Marchand
During a first hearing revealed by Le Parisien, in which Carla Bruni was heard as a free suspect, on May 2, 2023, she was questioned about direct communications with Mimi Marchand from a secret telephone at several crucial moments of the operation, in particular to receive messages from “Mimi” on the organization of Takieddine’s interview.
The telephone number is registered in the name of the former first lady's computer scientist, but the photo associated with this contact in Mimi Marchand's phone is indeed that of Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. One exchange in particular is being studied by investigators. It dates from October 22, 2020. While Mimi Marchand had just arrived in Beirut for the interview with Ziad Takieddine, she would have received a message from this number: “Is everything okay my mimi?” In addition, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy admitted to investigators that there was little chance that her IT specialist knew “Mimi”.
After having disputed several times that she was the holder of this telephone number, the former model raised the hypothesis of its use by her son. A theory quickly refuted by investigators who wonder why “Mimi” would send this kind of messages to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's son. For her lawyer, Me Paul Mallet, “the indictment of Ms. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, in the same terms as that concerning her husband, is only the procedural continuation”. The latter is “determined to assert her rights and challenge this unfounded decision,” according to her lawyer.
