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Michele "Mimi" Marchand (archive image)
Photo: ERIC FEFERBERG / AFP
New turn in the affair surrounding alleged illegal campaign financing of the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy by Libya: Now the influential head of the paparazzi agency BestImage, Michele "Mimi" Marchand, is being investigated.
The allegations are "influencing witnesses" and "criminal organization with the aim of defrauding".
Her lawyer Caroline Toby confirmed this to the AFP news agency on Saturday.
Marchand therefore rejects all allegations.
The background is the suspicion that Sarkozy's presidential election campaign in 2007 was sponsored by the Libyan despot at the time, Muammar al-Gaddafi. Examining magistrates have been investigating this suspicion since April 2013. According to reports from the French platform "Mediapart", around 50 million euros are said to have flowed to the conservative politician.
One of the main witnesses, the French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, withdrew his testimony in an interview with Paris Match magazine in November.
Two months later, however, he told the examining magistrates that his words had been "twisted" by the magazine, which was owned by a friend of Sarkozy's.
Takieddine had testified in court that he had handed over a total of five million euros to Sarkozy in 2006 and 2007 on behalf of Gaddafi.
Negotiations with the main witness against Sarkozy
In connection with the interview, Marchand was arrested on Thursday and must now remain in custody, as her defense attorney said.
According to information from the website "Mediapart", the investigation is about secret negotiations with Takieddine so that he can withdraw his allegations.
Marchand's lawyer denied the allegations against her client: Marchand had "acted in her capacity as a journalist who had the exclusive rights to the interview," she told AFP.
She only organized the photos and the interview "as part of her job".
Five other people were arrested along with Marchand.
One of those arrested, the journalist François de Labarre, has since been released without charge.
Confidante of the rich and powerful
Mimi Marchand works closely with a number of rich and powerful political and entertainment figures, including President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte.
Her arrest is just another twist in a whole series of investigations against Sarkozy, who headed the French state from 2007 to 2012.
At the beginning of March, the 66-year-old was sentenced to three years imprisonment, two of which were suspended, for bribery and illegal influence on the judiciary.
Since he has appealed, the judgment is not yet final.
Since May, Sarkozy has been on trial again for allegedly illegal funding of his 2012 presidential election campaign.
He faces further charges, including those of the Gaddafi funds.
Löw / AFP
