French ex-president Sarkozy held in Libya financing probe

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody for questioning over links to the late Libyan despot.

Muammar Gaddafi meets Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace on December 10, 2007. Picture: AFP

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was taken into police custody yesterday for questioning over suspected financing of his 2007 election campaign by the Libyan regime of the late ­Muammar Gaddafi.

Mr Sarkozy, 63, had refused to respond to a summons for questioning in the case, which drew heightened scrutiny in November 2016 when a businessman admitted delivering three cash-stuffed suitcases from Gaddafi as contributions towards the French leader’s first presidential bid.

Mr Sarkozy’s detention comes several weeks after a former associate, Alexandre Djouhri, was arrested in London and later released on bail.

A source close to the inquiry said Brice Hortefeux, a senior minister during Mr Sarkozy’s presidency, was also questioned yesterday as part of the inquiry.

Before his arrest in January, Mr Djouhri, a 59-year-old Swiss resident, had refused to respond to summons for questioning in Paris. He has been a focus of the inquiry opened in 2013 by judges investigating earlier claims by Gaddafi and his son Seif al-Islam that they provided funds for Mr Sarkozy’s election effort.

Mr 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.

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said he had made three trips from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007 with cash for Mr Sarkozy’s campaign.

Each time he carried a suitcase containing €1.5 million to €2m in €200 and €500 notes, Mr Takieddine claimed in a French media interview, saying he was given the money by Gaddafi’s military intelligence chief Abdallah Senussi.

Investigators are examining claims that Gaddafi’s regime secretly gave Mr Sarkozy €50m overall for the 2007 campaign. Such a sum would be more than double the legal campaign funding limit at the time of €21m.

In addition, the alleged payments would violate French rules against foreign financing and ­declaring the source of campaign funds.

Mr Sarkozy had a complex ­relationship with Gaddafi. Soon after becoming president, Mr Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to France for a state visit and welcomed him with high honours.

But Mr 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 February 2016, Mr Sarkozy was handed preliminary charges by magistrates for suspected ­illegal overspending on his failed 2012 re-election ­campaign and ordered to stand trial.

AFP, AP