A marathon and a boxing match.
On October 6, 7, 8 and 12, Nicolas Sarkozy was heard for nearly 40 hours in the office of the Parisian investigating judges Aude Buresi and Marc Sommerer, in the presence of his lawyer Me Thierry Herzog and a representative of the National Prosecutor's Office financier (PNF), as part of the investigation into alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign.
At the end of these marathon interrogations, the former President of the Republic, already indicted for "passive corruption", "concealment of embezzlement of public funds" and "illegal campaign financing", was accused for " conspiracy ".
Throughout these hearings, of which the Parisian - Today in France became aware, the former head of state defended himself step by step, instead implicating his former collaborators.
Without convincing the investigating magistrates.
"Banging your head against the walls"
On several occasions, Nicolas Sarkozy expressed his exasperation in the face of accusations which he intended to demonstrate "total inanity".
"How can I prove something I haven't done?"
"He asks at the start of the interview before launching:" It's like going crazy, banging against the walls. "
According to the prosecution, the former host of the Elysee Palace is suspected of having benefited from the windfall of the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi through two separate channels, which have been analyzed at length.
In this affair, everything started with the publication of a document by the Mediapart site during the period between the two rounds of the 2012 presidential election. Nicolas Sarkozy speaks of a "Libyan fable".
"There has never been near or far, neither in cash, nor in transfer, the least Libyan cent to finance my campaign," he swears.
You will be able to investigate in all the countries of the world, in all the banks, you will not find anything, because there is nothing.
In his defense, the former president keeps coming back to the same leitmotif: the absence, according to him, of material elements implicating him.
“You have neither proof of arrival, nor proof of exit regarding money.
Where is the money then?
“, He launches to the magistrates.
Here's what to remember from these hearings.
THE LIBYAN STAYS OF 2005
The judges are interested in the stay made by Nicolas Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, in Libya, on October 6, 2005. They note the omnipresence of the Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine behind the scenes.
"He played no role", sweeps away the former president, who multiplies the murderous formulas with regard to this man whom he says he never felt and who is today his main accuser.
An aversion that was not shared by those close to him.
Starting with Claude Guéant, his former secretary general at the Elysée Palace, whose investigation proved the countless meetings with the intermediary.
Between September 30 and October 2, 2015, the two men went together to Tripoli to prepare for Nicolas Sarkozy's trip.
The judges wonder why it is his chief of staff, and not his diplomatic adviser, who carries out this visit.
They are especially surprised that during this stay, his faithful collaborator meets, in the presence of Ziad Takieddine, Abdallah Senoussi, the head of foreign intelligence of Libya, sentenced to life imprisonment in France in 1999 for having organized the terrorist attack. DC-10 of UTA in 1989 (170 dead including 54 French).
“I never asked for such a meeting, and if I had been asked my opinion on it, I would have clearly said no
[…]
.
If I am asked if it is an error, yes, for me, it is an error, answers Nicolas Sarkozy, disavowing his adviser.
Before adding: "I can see the idea behind your head of a corruption pact that could have been made with this person who had an arrest warrant.
Do you take me for a fool?
You put me in a story where I send Claude Guéant to negotiate with a criminal and a nutcase an alleged corruption pact!
It does not mean anything "
During the investigation, Abdallah Senoussi assured that Ziad Takieddine had played the intermediary for the financing of the campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy to the tune of 20 million euros.
"I bring the strongest denial on these incredible demands," chokes the former head of state.
"How could this involve me?"
During this famous stay of October 6, 2005, the former head of the intelligence services explained that Nicolas Sarkozy and the Libyan dictator would have mentioned together this financial support.
Again, the former host of the Elysee evacuates the accusations.
In order to prove his good faith, he agrees to release his interpreter from professional secrecy, who refused to reveal the content of the face to face meeting between the two leaders.
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The judges finally focused on a third trip, that of Brice Hortefeux, the intimate friend of the future president, between December 19 and 22, 2015. In their eyes, the trip of the one who was then his Minister Delegate for Territorial Communities is "Incongruous".
They also recall that the French ambassador at the time referred to "a trip that did not make much sense".
During this visit, still in the presence of Ziad Takieddine, Brice Hortefeux also met the sulphurous Abdallah Senoussi.
“Same answer as for Claude Guéant, it's a mistake, admits the former mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
[…]
.
It is a fault for one as for the other
[…]
.
On the other hand, how could this implicate me in a corruption pact?
"
MONEY
According to Abdallah Senoussi, Muammar Gaddafi would have agreed to supplement Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign to the tune of 7 million euros.
He evokes a meeting during which Brice Hortefeux, still in the presence of Ziad Takieddine, would have given him the RIB of a bank of which he does not remember the name on which to make the transfers.
He specifies that this account belonged to the Franco-Lebanese intermediary.
"It is a tissue of shameless lies, the former president gets angry
[…]
.
If I needed money for my campaign, I wouldn't put it on Ziad Takieddine's account, I would put it on an ad hoc account
[…]
.
The only trace is the transfers from Libyan accounts to Ziad Takieddine's accounts.
How is it that you find these transfers, but that you do not find the transfers which would have been made in my favor?
He says.
Nicolas Sarkozy's conviction is as follows: the intermediary actually received 6 million euros by making the Libyans believe that he would give them to him, but he kept the money.
"Ziad Takieddine takes Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux like puppets to exhibit them", he analyzes.
"A tissue of lies, of fabrications"
Still, before the investigating judge, Ziad Takieddine explained that he personally delivered three suitcases of cash containing a total of 5 million euros to Claude Guéant (twice) and Nicolas Sarkozy (once), at the end of 2006 - early 2007, place Beauvau.
"It is a tissue of lies, fabrications and factual errors", replies the former Minister of the Interior, who adds: "no one entered the ministry without presenting his identity documents and without being searched ".
And to add, press article in support, that he was not in Paris during the alleged handover in January 2008.
Recently indicted for "criminal association", Thierry Gaubert, former adviser to Nicolas Sarkozy at the Ministry of the Budget, is suspected of having received 440,000 euros in 2006 on an account in the Bahamas supplied by Libyan funds from Ziad Takieddine.
Did this money benefit the presidential candidate?
"I no longer have personal relations with Thierry Gaubert since 1996," says the former president.
In December 2007, after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, Mouammar Gadhafi was received at the Elysee Palace with great pomp./LP/Carol Ammar
THE 2ND CIRCUIT
Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, former Prime Minister of Gaddafi, spoke of a second secret financing channel passing through Bashir Saleh, the former great financier of the Libyan dictatorship.
The latter would have handed over the funds to Claude Guéant in Paris, in a suitcase so small that it would have been necessary to "sit on it".
Abdallah Senoussi confirms and speaks of 8 million euros.
"I did not know Béchir Saleh at that time," replies Nicolas Sarkozy, who considers "grotesque" this suitcase story.
"Alexandre Djouhri came to talk to me about politics"
On the other hand, the Libyan is very close to another player in the file, Alexandre Djouhri.
Also indicted, the businessman is an intimate of Dominique de Villepin rallied to Sarkozie.
The investigation showed that, during the five-year term, he had visited Claude Guéant at the Elysee Palace 59 times and Nicolas Sarkozy 14 times.
The judges wonder.
"Alexandre Djouhri is a cheerful man, quite sympathetic, who came to talk to me about politics", justifies the ex-president.
As for the money, he believes there again that it was embezzled by Ziad Takieddine.
Evoking Béchir Saleh is also recalling one of the most comical episodes of this affair: his exfiltration from France during the period between the two rounds of the 2012 presidential election, hatched by Alexandre Djouhri and Bernard Squarcini, the former boss of the RG.
"But can't you imagine for a minute that this goes through me?"
»Pretends to be offended Nicolas Sarkozy, who adds:« It is not normal what happened, but one cannot reproach me, neither actively nor passively ».
THE COUNTERPARTIES
The judges finally looked at the benefits that the Libyan regime was able to derive from this alleged financing.
There is talk of a monitoring contract awarded to a French company, proposals in the area of civilian nuclear power, but also, more embarrassing, an intervention to have Abdallah Senoussi's international arrest warrant lifted after his conviction for the attack on UTA's DC-10.
The former Libyan leaders mentioned the involvement of Me Thierry Herzog, Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer.
A document found in Ziad Takieddine's computer shows this.
"A monstrous calumny"
"It is a monstrous slander which rests on an unsigned cloth", the ex-head of state is carried away, who finds himself in the paradoxical situation of defending his lawyer, present at his side.
In the eyes of the judges, the other counterpart would be diplomatic with the official visit of Mouammar Gadhafi to France in December 2007. But for Nicolas Sarkozy, it was a question of thanking "the Guide" for having accepted the release of the Bulgarian nurses in July. of the same year.
“It didn't amuse me,” he admits, speaking of the red carpet unrolled in front of the dictator, “but it was only a political prize.
"
