The former French head of state between 2007 and 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy, was doubly indicted on Friday as part of an investigation into fraudulent maneuvers aimed at exonerating him from suspicions of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, we learned AFP from a judicial source.
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According to a judicial source, former President Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted for concealment of witness tampering, concerning the retraction of the Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine of his accusations against him at the end of 2020, and participation in an association of criminals with a view to committing the offense of judgment fraud in an organized gang. A decision which opens the way to a possible new trial for this figurehead of the French right.
Around thirty hours of interrogation
It was taken after around thirty hours of interrogation in total over three and a half days, led by two financial magistrates responsible for this judicial investigation opened in May 2021 on this operation, called “Saving Sarkozy” by the one of the defendants. By this indictment, the judges mean that they believe they have sufficient serious or consistent evidence as to his participation in the maneuvers developed by at least nine other protagonists involved to varying degrees and times, possibly by giving them his approval.
Sarkozy decided to “ defend one’s honor »
The first step of the operation would have consisted of obtaining the retraction of the accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy from the sulphurous intermediary Ziad Takieddine, at the end of 2020 in exchange for possible remuneration. Then, in the first half of 2021, some of those accused would have tried to obtain proof that the resounding Libyan document published between the two rounds of the 2012 presidential election by the French investigative site Mediapart and mentioning financing from amounting to 50 million euros was a fake. According to his lawyers, the former French president is now “ firmly decided ” has ” defend one’s honor “.
(With AFP)
Read alsoAlleged Libyan financing in 2007: trial ordered in 2025 for Sarkozy and twelve others