Nicolas Sarkozy in police custody over campaign funding

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into police
custody to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of
euros in illegal election campaign funding from the regime
of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president from 2007 to 2012,
was being questioned early on Tuesday morning at a police station
in Nanterre, north-west Paris, as part of an inquiry into whether
Gaddafi and others in Libya illegally financed his winning election
campaign in 2007.

The investigation is potentially France’s most explosive
political financing scandal in decades. Sarkozy has repeatedly
denied the allegations, dismissing the claims as “grotesque”.

It is the first time Sarkozy has been questioned by police over
the allegations. A French inquiry into alleged illegal campaign
funding from Libya was opened in 2013. The inquiry did not name
anyone as a suspect, and has centred on claims of corruption,
influence trafficking, forgery, abuse of public funds and money
laundering.

Investigators are examining claims that Gaddafi’s regime
secretly gave Sarkozy €50m overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a
sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit,
which was €21m at the time. The alleged payments would also violate
French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of
campaign funds.

In April 2012, the investigative website Mediapart published a document it said was
signed by a senior Libyan figure stating the regime approved a payment of
€50m to “support” Sarkozy’s election campaign.

Previously Sarkozy and Claude Guéant, a close ally and former
minister, claimed documents obtained by Mediapart were false. A
French court later declared that certain documents were authentic,
allowing them to be used in the long-running investigation.

Guéant has been officially put under investigation for organised
fraud in the Gaddafi inquiry after allegedly receiving a bank
transfer of €500,000, which he claimed had come from the sale of
two paintings.

Sarkozy 63, had until now refused to respond to a summons for
questioning in the case.

The investigation appeared to accelerate after Ziad Takieddine,
a wealthy French-Lebanese businessman who was close to Gaddafi’s
regime, told Mediapart in 2016that he had personally
delivered suitcases stuffed with cash from the Libyan leader as
payments towards Sarkozy’s campaign.

He said he made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006
and early 2007. Each time he carried a suitcase containing €1.5m to
€2m in €200 and €500 notes, he claimed, saying he was given the
money by Gaddafi’s military intelligence chief.

Sarkozy had a complex relationship with Gaddafi. Soon after
becoming the French president, he invited the Libyan leader to
France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honours. But
Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of Nato-led airstrikes
against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his
regime in 2011.

In March 2011, Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi told Euronews: “Sarkozy has
to give back the money he accepted from Libya to finance his
electoral campaign. We financed his campaign and we have the proof
… The first thing we’re demanding is that this clown gives back the
money to the Libyan people.”

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as the claims of
vindictive Libyan regime members furious over his participation in
the US-led military intervention that ended Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

Sarkozy can be held for questioning for 48 hours. A lawyer for
Sarkozy could not be reached immediately for comment.

Another former minister and close ally of Sarkozy, Brice
Hortefeux, was also being questioned by police on Tuesday in
relation to the Libya allegations, a source close to the
investigation told Reuters.

In January, Alexandre Djouhri, a French businessman suspected by
investigators of funnelling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s
campaign, was arrested in Britain and granted bail after he
appeared in a London court.

Djouhri was returned to pre-trial detention in February after
France issued a second warrant for his arrest, ahead of a hearing
scheduled for later this month.

Sarkozy has already been ordered to stand trial in
a separate matter concerning financing of
his failed re-election campaign in 2012, when he was defeated by
François Hollande. That case, known as the “Bygmalion affair”,
centres on an alleged system of false accounting used by
Sarkozy’s office to conceal an enormous campaign
overspend, mainly on the lavish rallies and US-style stadium gigs
that cemented Sarkozy’s reputation as a political showman. Sarkozy
has denied all allegations in the case.

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into police
custody to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of
euros in illegal election campaign funding from the regime
of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was France’s rightwing president from 2007 to 2012,
was being questioned early on Tuesday morning at a police station
in Nanterre, north-west Paris, as part of an inquiry into whether
Gaddafi and others in Libya illegally financed his winning election
campaign in 2007.

The investigation is potentially France’s most explosive
political financing scandal in decades. Sarkozy has repeatedly
denied the allegations, dismissing the claims as “grotesque”.

It is the first time Sarkozy has been questioned by police over
the allegations. A French inquiry into alleged illegal campaign
funding from Libya was opened in 2013. The inquiry did not name
anyone as a suspect, and has centred on claims of corruption,
influence trafficking, forgery, abuse of public funds and money
laundering.

Investigators are examining claims that Gaddafi’s regime
secretly gave Sarkozy €50m overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a
sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit,
which was €21m at the time. The alleged payments would also violate
French rules against foreign financing and declaring the source of
campaign funds.

In April 2012, the investigative website Mediapart published a document it said was
signed by a senior Libyan figure stating the regime approved a payment of
€50m to “support” Sarkozy’s election campaign.

Previously Sarkozy and Claude Guéant, a close ally and former
minister, claimed documents obtained by Mediapart were false. A
French court later declared that certain documents were authentic,
allowing them to be used in the long-running investigation.

Guéant has been officially put under investigation for organised
fraud in the Gaddafi inquiry after allegedly receiving a bank
transfer of €500,000, which he claimed had come from the sale of
two paintings.

Sarkozy 63, had until now refused to respond to a summons for
questioning in the case.

The investigation appeared to accelerate after Ziad Takieddine,
a wealthy French-Lebanese businessman who was close to Gaddafi’s
regime, told Mediapart in 2016that he had personally
delivered suitcases stuffed with cash from the Libyan leader as
payments towards Sarkozy’s campaign.

He said he made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006
and early 2007. Each time he carried a suitcase containing €1.5m to
€2m in €200 and €500 notes, he claimed, saying he was given the
money by Gaddafi’s military intelligence chief.

Sarkozy had a complex relationship with Gaddafi. Soon after
becoming the French president, he invited the Libyan leader to
France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honours. But
Sarkozy then put France in the forefront of Nato-led airstrikes
against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his
regime in 2011.

In March 2011, Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi told Euronews: “Sarkozy has
to give back the money he accepted from Libya to finance his
electoral campaign. We financed his campaign and we have the proof
… The first thing we’re demanding is that this clown gives back the
money to the Libyan people.”

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as the claims of
vindictive Libyan regime members furious over his participation in
the US-led military intervention that ended Gaddafi’s 41-year rule.

Sarkozy can be held for questioning for 48 hours. A lawyer for
Sarkozy could not be reached immediately for comment.

Another former minister and close ally of Sarkozy, Brice
Hortefeux, was also being questioned by police on Tuesday in
relation to the Libya allegations, a source close to the
investigation told Reuters.

In January, Alexandre Djouhri, a French businessman suspected by
investigators of funnelling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s
campaign, was arrested in Britain and granted bail after he
appeared in a London court.

Djouhri was returned to pre-trial detention in February after
France issued a second warrant for his arrest, ahead of a hearing
scheduled for later this month.

Sarkozy has already been ordered to stand trial in
a separate matter concerning financing of
his failed re-election campaign in 2012, when he was defeated by
François Hollande. That case, known as the “Bygmalion affair”,
centres on an alleged system of false accounting used by
Sarkozy’s office to conceal an enormous campaign
overspend, mainly on the lavish rallies and US-style stadium gigs
that cemented Sarkozy’s reputation as a political showman. Sarkozy
has denied all allegations in the case.