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Libyan funding: Claude Guéant at the Paris court for a new questioning

2020-12-03T02:16:53.312Z


The former minister, indicted in particular for "corruption", had not been questioned for two years about this affair.


The case of suspicion of Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007, will she experience new twists and turns?

Former minister Claude Guéant arrived at the Paris court on Wednesday to be heard again by investigating judge Aude Buresi in charge of the investigation, AFP reports.

Claude Guéant, indicted in particular for "corruption", but who had not been questioned for two years, arrived around 9.20 am accompanied by his lawyer.

His summons comes after the deep interrogation of Nicolas Sarkozy which ended in early October with a new indictment for "criminal association", raising the threat of similar prosecutions against his former right-hand man, who disputes all the accusations.

These are notably carried by the Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine.

In a resounding about-face on November 11, the latter withdrew his accusations against the former president, at the heart of the investigation carried out since 2013 by Parisian anti-corruption investigating judges.

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In Paris Match, however, the businessman maintained that he had given funds to Claude Guéant, or 5 million euros in cash in 2005 at the home of Ziad Takieddine, intended for a training contract for Libyan personnel.

The former minister denied "categorically" these statements made from Beirut by Ziad Takieddine, who fled just before his conviction in June in France to five years in prison in the context of the Karachi affair.

In this case, the former secretary general of the Elysee Palace was indicted for the first time in 2015 for “laundering of tax fraud in an organized gang”, for a suspicious transfer of 500,000 euros which arrived in March 2008 on his account.

Claude Guéant justifies it by selling two Flemish paintings, without having convinced the investigators who suspect that the money comes from Libyan funds, via intermediaries such as Alexandre Djouhri, another protagonist of the case.

Charges aggravated in 2018

On September 11, 2018, the judges aggravated the indictments of the senior official, suspecting him of being involved in a “corruption pact” between the Libyan regime and the former president.

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Claude Guéant came out of their office with a list of new charges that he formally contests: "passive corruption", complicity and concealment of this offense, "concealment of embezzlement of public funds", "complicity in the illegal financing of an electoral campaign" and “Laundering of passive corruption in an organized group”.

During this last interrogation, Claude Guéant had asserted his right to silence, invoking the appeals of the Sarkozy camp against the validity of the investigation.

These were rejected on September 24 by the Paris Court of Appeal.

The indicted lodged appeals in cassation.

On November 23, Claude Guéant assured BFMTV that he had "no reason" to doubt the support of Nicolas Sarkozy, who however disowned him before the judges on his multiple contacts with the intermediary Ziad Takieddine.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2020-12-03

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