Former French First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been charged with witness tampering in connection with allegations that her husband, ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, received illegal campaign financing from Libya. The charges were brought against Bruni-Sarkozy on Tuesday, and she has been placed under judicial supervision, which includes a ban on contacting anyone involved in the proceedings except her husband.
The preliminary charges against Bruni-Sarkozy include witness tampering and participation in a criminal association with an attempt to commit fraud. These charges are part of an ongoing investigation into whether Nicolas Sarkozy received illegal funds during his 2007 presidential election campaign. The judicial official who disclosed this information was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s lawyer has not responded to requests for comment. After being questioned by police in May, her lawyers stated that she provided “useful clarifications and explanations” but did not comment further. The central witness in this case, Ziad Takieddine, has accused Sarkozy of receiving millions in illegal payments from the regime of then-Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two other legal cases. He has consistently denied any wrongdoing in all the cases against him. In February, an appeals court in Paris upheld a guilty verdict against Sarkozy for illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid. He was sentenced to a year in prison, with six months suspended. Sarkozy’s lawyers have appealed to the Court of Cassation, France’s highest court, and with the appeal pending, Sarkozy cannot be imprisoned under French law.
Sarkozy was accused of spending almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on his re-election bid, which he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande. In a separate case in 2021, Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling, making him the first former French president in modern history to be convicted and sentenced to prison for actions during his term. Sarkozy retired from active politics in 2017.
The charges against Bruni-Sarkozy also include hiding evidence and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud. She has been barred from contacting anyone involved in the case except her husband. Bruni-Sarkozy is suspected of concealing witness tampering and attempting to bribe Lebanese judicial personnel, among other violations. Her lawyers, Paul Mallet and Benoit Martinez, did not immediately comment when contacted by AFP.
Sarkozy was charged in October 2023 with illegal witness tampering as part of a probe into whether he took money from the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 election campaign. Investigators suspect that several people, some close to Sarkozy, were involved in paying a key witness in that case to retract a statement incriminating the former president.
Bruni-Sarkozy has already been questioned twice by investigators, first as a witness in June 2023, and then as a suspect in early May. An investigation revealed that Bruni-Sarkozy deleted all messages exchanged with French “paparazzi queen” Michele Marchand on the day Marchand was charged with witness tampering in June 2021.
Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine had claimed several times that he helped deliver up to five million euros ($5.4 million at current rates) in cash from Kadhafi to Sarkozy and his chief of staff in 2006 and 2007. However, in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, raising suspicions that Sarkozy and his close allies, including his wife, may have paid the witness to change his mind.
Authorities took an interest in Bruni-Sarkozy when Marchand justified her trips to the Sarkozy home as social calls with the singer. Sarkozy is set to stand trial in 2025 over allegations that he conspired to take cash from the Libyan leader to illegally fund his 2007 presidential campaign. The right-wing politician, who ran France from 2007 to 2012, has faced numerous legal challenges since leaving office.
In 2023, Sarkozy was given a suspended prison sentence for trying to bribe a judge, and earlier this year, he was found guilty of illegally funding his 2012 re-election campaign. He and Bruni-Sarkozy, an Italian-born former supermodel and singer, married in 2008 and have a daughter, Giulia, born in 2011.
The investigation into the allegations against Sarkozy was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-leader Gaddafi, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding. The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East, supported the claims. He told judges he had written proof that Sarkozy’s campaign was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.
Years later, Takieddine told French media that in 2006-07 he had personally handed over suitcases stuffed with banknotes to Sarkozy and his chief of staff, Claude Guéant, who later denied this. But in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his statement about handing over large amounts of money, raising suspicions that Sarkozy and his allies, including his wife, might have paid him to change his mind.
In June, Bruni-Sarkozy was found to have deleted messages exchanged with a French businesswoman who was questioned by police over accusations of witness tampering. Since losing his re-election bid to Socialist François Hollande in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.
Source: Associated Press, AFP
