In a twist, the businessman Pierre Reynaud, who had escaped the prison ax, was finally imprisoned on October 14 in the case of the withdrawal of Ziad Takieddine. This 65-year-old man was indicted for extortion a fortnight ago, but left free under judicial supervision by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD) after having paid a bond of 150 000 euros, in the case of “bribery and association of criminals with a view to committing a scam” linked to the interview granted by the intermediary Ziad Takieddine to the magazine Paris Match in November 2020.
But, in the meantime, the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), which had requested the placement in detention, had appealed against the decision of the JLD in this aspect of the case of the suspicions of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign in 2007. According to our reports. information, the investigative chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal overturned the order not to be placed in detention and issued a warrant for committal at the hearing against the person concerned, already for the first time indicted and placed under judicial supervision in the case.
The investigating chamber finally followed the PNF who had doubly requested the placement in pre-trial detention of the businessman: first for the violation of his judicial control prohibiting him from meeting a certain number of protagonists of the case. , then for suspicion of extortion.
Last summer, Michèle Marchand, known as Mimi, the “queen of the people”, close to the couples Sarkozy and Macron, herself indicted in the case, was also placed in pre-trial detention after having simply violated its judicial review.
She has since been released.
Suspicious fund movements
The resounding interview with Ziad Takieddine, a brief extract of which was also broadcast on BFMTV, was granted to a journalist from Paris Match, who had traveled to Lebanon with a photographer from the Bestimage agency, accompanied by his boss Michèle Trader. During this interview, the sulphurous intermediary withdrew his accusations against the former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he had previously accused of having benefited from Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential campaign. Two months later, questioned in Beirut by the judges in charge of the Libyan case, Takieddine, known for his versatility, declared that he did not "confirm the words of the interview".
The magistrates suspect that this ephemeral retraction could have been bought or at least remotely controlled fraudulently, as the newspaper Liberation and the Mediapart site had revealed upstream. Suspicious movements of funds were noted, evoking possible negotiations on the sidelines of the interview. The investigation established that, via Western Union transfers to Lebanon, a certain Noël Dubus, already convicted of fraud, who had also traveled to Beirut at the time of the interview, sent 8,000 euros to the attention by Ziad Takieddine.
Money that would have been advanced by Pierre Reynaud, to whom Dubus would have dangled the opportunity to obtain a very important bank loan under favorable conditions.
According to Maurice Lantourne, the businessman's lawyer, Dubus had borrowed 100,000 euros from Pierre Reynaud through a press secretary "under false pretenses" and this sum was never reimbursed.
"It is the victim who finds himself pursued", assured us Me Lantourne, disputing that his client was violent.
This Monday evening, the lawyer was not reachable.
A big arm sent to demand accounts
One thing is certain: Pierre Reynaud seems to consider having been wronged in this operation. According to our information, the businessman would have sent an emissary to Noël Dubus to claim the money owed from him while the two men, placed under judicial supervision, were prohibited from meeting. Returning empty-handed, the same big arm would then have gone to a relative of Noël Dubus to threaten her and demand accountability. This well-known communicator, Anne T, would then have signed a check for a large amount which could not have been endorsed by Pierre Reynaud, following an opposition to the famous check. The emissary would then have returned a second time to Anne T. to extort the sum from her and would have assaulted her.
Following a complaint for extortion, the PNF then opened an investigation which today leads to the provisional imprisonment of Pierre Reynaud.
Anne T. is cited in Ziad Takieddine's retraction file for having organized a first interview with the sulphurous intermediary published, on June 27, 2020, in the Journal du Dimanche.
An interview conducted by the editorial director of the newspaper, Hervé Gattegno, and in which Ziad Takieddine had not made any retraction.