Libya allegedly bankrolled the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy with up to €50 million in pay-outs. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing and rejected suggestions he was a Libyan agent of influence during his tenure as president of France. He has since officially been convicted of corruption in 2021.[2]
Background
2007 election
In May 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy was elected President of France in a six-point victory over Ségolène Royal.[3] Sarkozy officially spent €21 million on his campaign.[4] The size of the campaign spend, relative to those seen in United States elections, prompted French scholar Sophie Meunier to later declare that "French politicians are, therefore, not enslaved to special interests or Super-PACs as they are in the U.S."[4]
During the 2007 French election, candidates were limited to spending no more than €21 million, and no single person could donate in excess of €7500 to a candidate.[5] In addition, the sources of donations had to be publicly declared and contributions from foreign nationals were prohibited.[6]
Libyan détente and later reversal
In December 2007, following Sarkozy's inauguration as President of France, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi visited the country on Sarkozy's invitation, over the objections of both the political opposition and members of Sarkozy's government.[7] Gaddafi's visit to France was his first in over 35 years; during the trip, France agreed to sell Libya 21 Airbus aircraft, and the two countries signed a nuclear cooperation agreement.[7] Negotiations for the sale of over a dozen French Dassault Rafale fighter jets, plus military helicopters, were also initiated during Gaddafi's visit.[8]
The same month that French forces were committed to the Libyan conflict, Saif-al-Islam Gaddafi, a son of Muammar Gaddafi, gave an interview to Euronews in which he first publicly claimed that the Libyan state had donated €50 million to Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign in exchange for access and favours by Sarkozy.[10][11] He was quoted as saying: "We funded it and we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything. The first thing we want this clown to do is to give the money back to the Libyan people. He was given assistance so that he could help them. But he's disappointed us: give us back our money."[12] Sarkozy rejected the claim by Gaddafi.[10]
The following October, the claim that Libya had funded Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign was repeated by former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi Mahmudi.[10] Investigative website Mediapart subsequently published several documents appearing to prove payment of €50 million and also published a claim by Ziad Takieddine that he had personally handed three briefcases full of cash to Sarkozy.[10][13] French magistrates later acquired the diaries of former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem in which payments to Sarkozy were mentioned.[14] Shortly thereafter, however, Ghanem was found dead, floating in the Danube in Austria and thereby preventing his corroboration of the diaries.[11][14]
In 2014, television station France 3 released an audio recording made by Delphine Minoui on March 16, 2011, during which Minoui interviewed Muammar Gaddafi.[15] In the recording, Gaddafi told Minoui that Sarkozy had approached him seeking funds for his presidential election campaign while still serving as French interior minister.[15]
In February 2018, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper quoted a source alleging that Sarkozy had promised Libyan representatives improved relations between France and Libya should he be elected president and that he would wrap up the matter of the bombing of UTA Flight 772.[16] As recently as 2018, Saif al-Islam reiterated his 2011 claim, and since also added that a former officer of the Libyan intelligence service was at that time in possession of a recording of a meeting between Muammar Gaddafi and Sarkozy that occurred in Tripoli in 2007, during which payments were discussed.[17]
Investigation
In 2013 the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) officially opened an investigation into the allegations of Libyan funding of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign.[18][19] In March 2018, Sarkozy-era interior minister Brice Hortefeux voluntarily appeared before French police for questioning.[13] Several arrests have been made in relation to the inquiry.
Guéant, the former chief of staff to Sarkozy, was arrested and charged in March 2015 with money laundering and forgery in relation to the alleged Libyan funding affair.[20] According to investigators, Guéant helped facilitate the transfer of Libyan funds and may have received $500,000 for his efforts, however, Guéant has claimed the money came from his sale of two Andries van Eertvelt paintings to a Malaysian attorney, with the sale arranged by Saudi businessman Khalid Bugshan.[21] Authorities allege the transfer of the paintings, which were competitively valued at $35,000, was organized by Bugshan as a means of laundering the purported Libyan payment.[21]
Khalid Ali Bugshan
Yes March 6, 2015
No
Saudi businessman Khalid Ali Bugshan was taken into police custody for questioning the same day as Claude Guéant.[22]
François Guéant
Yes March 30, 2015
No
François Guéant, the son of Claude Guéant, was taken into police custody in March 2015 for questioning over the alleged affair in a matter separate from his father's sale of van Eertvelt paintings.[23]
Djouhri was arrested by British police at Heathrow Airport on a European Arrest Warrant which had been issued after he refused to appear at a court in Paris for questioning over the Libyan affair.[24] Djouhri resisted extradition to France, with attorneys claiming the inquiry was politically motivated and expressing concern about French prison conditions.[25] He was released on $1.4 million bail pending the outcome of his appeal of the arrest warrant, but was ultimately returned to France and placed in pre-trial detention in advance of a hearing scheduled for March 28, 2018[25][26]Djouhri, a French citizen of Algerian heritage who resides in Switzerland, is alleged to have sold a €4.4 million villa in the south of France to the Bashir Saleh Bashir-managed Libya Africa Investment Portfolio for €10 million.[27] The overpayment was purportedly used to launder funds to Sarkozy.[27]
Sarkozy was detained by French police for questioning in March 2018, during which he was held at the Nanterre station of the DCPJ, west of Paris.[18][6]On March 21 he was charged with corruption.[2][28] Officially, Sarkozy is under formal investigation, meaning judicial authorities have been presented with sufficient evidence by police to begin a full inquiry by an investigating magistrate, which would possibly lead to a trial.[29]
Reaction
Sarkozy's political party, The Republicans, issued a statement following his arrest in which it said the former president had the party's full support.[30] Spokesman Christian Jacob later suggested that the accusations against Sarkozy were politically motivated.[30]
Following Sarkozy's arrest, Eric Ciotti expressed confidence the former president would be exonerated.[31]
On 1 March 2021, Sarkozy was convicted of different corruption charges, after investigators looking into the Libyan finance allegations wiretapped conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog.[32] On 17 May 2023 this conviction was confirmed by The Paris Court of Appeals as was the sentence of three years in jail: two of them suspended and one to be served as house arrest wearing an electronic tag. Sarkozy said he would appeal the verdict to the Court of Cassation, France's top court.[33]
On October 6, 2023, Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted for “concealment of witness tampering” and “participation in a criminal association with a view to committing the offense of fraud in judgment in an organized gang” and was also placed under arrest. status of assisted witness for “participation in a criminal conspiracy with a view to committing the offense of active corruption of foreign judicial personnel” in Lebanon as part of the investigation into the retraction of witness Ziad Takieddine.[34]
On July 9, 2024, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is placed on bail, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is accused of having put pressure on a witness who accused ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy of having received illegal campaign financing from Libya.[35]
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