former minister Claude Guéant pleads “naivety” and “recklessness” at the bar

“A particular ability to lie”and “complex character”…Ziad Takieddine must definitely have ringing ears. After Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday, his former right-hand man Claude Guéant in turn accused the Franco-Lebanese intermediary during his interrogation at the trial of suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign, Thursday January 15, before the Paris criminal court . Enough to prove the adage according to which “the absent are always wrong”the businessman, himself prosecuted in this affair, being on the run in Lebanon.

Claude Guéant's explanations, however, left the National Financial Prosecutor's Office and the civil parties skeptical. Ziad Takieddine is suspected of having put him in contact with senior Libyan dignitaries to promote “the corruption pact” between Nicolas Sarkozy and the dictator Muammar Gaddafi and of having then played a role in the transfer of Libyan funds intended for the campaign of the UMP candidate.

“At the time, I had no reason to be suspicious” by Ziad Takieddine, assures Claude Guéant, Thursday, sitting on a chair in front of the bar, because of his age, he who must celebrate his 80th birthday on Friday. His CV, mentioned just before, gives little credence to this statement. When he meets through Brice Hortefeux this “business provider” in 2003, Claude Guéant was chief of staff of the Minister of the Interior, former enarque and ex-boss of the national police. “Obviously, I inquired a little, I know that he was in charge of a certain number of contracts”admits the former prefect half-heartedly. But nothing flashes, he says, despite the numerous notes on the character of the Territorial Surveillance Directorate (DST, former intelligence service) seized during searches. Claude Guéant assures us that he did not “never seen”.

It is therefore in all “trust” that the former chief of staff accompanies Ziad Takieddine to Saudi Arabia to “destroyer” a remunerative contract for France and provider of jobs, which he surrenders “twice” in his private mansion in Paris, notably to dine with Saïf al-Islam Kadhafi, son of the tyrant, let him welcome him into his home “twice” to talk about “the liberation of Bulgarian nurses in 2007”, then he had breakfasts with her at the chic Astor hotel in the capital, at the end of 2007-beginning of 2008 to discuss “the resumption of diplomatic relations between France and Syria”. “He’s someone who was well established, but I didn’t know precisely the origin” to make a fortune “nor what job he did”supports the former secretary general of the Elysée.

“It wasn’t known that he had been France’s intermediary?”is surprised by prosecutor Sébastien de la Touanne, who mentions the contracts signed with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia in 1994, and whose kickbacks will give rise to the Karachi affair. “He did not put this experience forward”replies Claude Guéant, defensively. “It’s a bit as if someone applied by saying: ‘I have my baccalaureate’, but not: ‘I also studied at Sciences Po and the ENA…’”quips the prosecutor.

“Faced with such bad faith, my arms are falling (…) You have well hidden the reality of your relationship with Ziad Takieddine.”

Prosecutor Sébastien de la Touanne

during the interrogation of Claude Guéant

“I never hid anything!”the octogenarian takes offense, ensuring that he has ended his relationship with “Mr. Takieddine” since “Syrian relations were handled directly with the Syrian government”. The prosecutor opposes “two meetings at the Elysée in 2009”of which the prosecution found the trace. The memory of Claude Guéant only retained one, for the “closure of the Senoussi file”. Understanding Abdallah Senoussi, the former head of Libyan military intelligence, sentenced to life imprisonment in his absence by French justice in 1999, for his role in the attack on UTA's DC-10. According to the prosecution, the lifting of his arrest warrant was part of the compensation for the corruption pact. “You still had confidence in Takieddine after the trap he set for you with Senoussi?”asks lawyer Vincent Ollivier, who represents the French victims of the attack.

Claude Guéant has always claimed that the intermediary had trapped him by making him meet, outside of any official circuit, Abdallah Senoussi, during his visit to Tripoli on October 1, 2005 to prepare that of Nicolas Sarkozy a few days later. The one who has long been nicknamed “the cardinal”for the “passion for secrecy, intelligence and the parallel network”as the civil party recalls, swears to have seen nothing coming. “Ziad Takieddine calls me to say: ‘I’m going to introduce you to someone very important.’ And that’s how I ended up meeting Mr. Senoussi”he summarizes, elliptical.

The president, Nathalie Gavarino, widens her eyes: “You are chief of staff of the Ministry of the Interior and you have no questions about where you are going?” “I was only told that I was going to dinner in a restaurant with someone very important”repeats the defendant, who then seems to shrink in his chair.

“Et ?”reminds the magistrate. “We have a meal together, we obviously chatted about relations between France and Libya and their future”continues Claude Guéant, as if he was not speaking with anyone “condemned for 170 deaths”notes the president. “I'm uncomfortable”concedes his interlocutor half-heartedly, struggling to justify why he did not get up to escape the “trap”.

“I have no right to make a scene, I have to go all the way”at the risk, otherwise, of “sacking Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit and damaging relations”argues Claude Guéant again, regretting his “naivete” and his “imprudence”. Under the eyes of his former mentor, seated two meters away, he maintains “not having spoken about it” on his return to Paris. “I didn’t want to tell my minister that I had been fooled”he says, after this damning exchange in his defense.

Perhaps Claude Guéant should have done as Brice Hortefeux advised his children? The day before, the former Minister of the Interior, 66, close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, also spent his interrogation distancing himself from Ziad Takieddine, despite their “seven to eight meetings”between “two afternoons” on the businessman's yacht in Antibes, dinners in his mansion in Paris, a trip to Saudi Arabia and two trips to Libya, during which he also met Abdallah Senoussi. “I don’t minimize and I don’t exaggerate, I tell the truth”swore Brice Hortefeux, before telling this anecdote: “I have children who are between 20 and 25 years old, they question me, I had to explain to them why I was here in front of you. I told them one thing: 'If one day you hear the word' intermediate', you run away, you don't stay'.”