"I think that Ziad Takieddine is a great manipulator who has demonstrated his great ability to play with his interlocutors".
Thus Nicolas Sarkozy described the Franco-Lebanese intermediary last month before the examining magistrates who were going to indict him additionally for “criminal association” in the investigation into the supposed Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. He also readily called him a "thug," "crazy," or "shameless liar."
But this Wednesday, November 11, about the same Ziad Takieddine, the former President of the Republic had much more flattering words.
Four years after his shattering accusations which had earned the former head of state a triple indictment for "passive corruption", "concealment of embezzlement of public funds" and "illegal campaign financing", the man of business has undergone a complete turnaround of which he has the secret.
In an interview with "Paris Match" and BFMTV, he affirms that there was "no Libyan funding for the presidential campaign" of Nicolas Sarkozy, contrary to what he had been supporting for several years in court.
This turnaround legitimately satisfies the supporters of the former host of the Elysee Palace.
It further complicates the task of magistrates in this complex and nebulous case where physical evidence is lacking.
But it does not call the whole procedure into question.
Above all, it demonstrates once again to what extent Ziad Takieddine, customary of about-faces, is a witness with more than fragile reliability which we no longer know when to believe it or not.
Nicolas Sarkozy requests the lifting of his indictment
Legally, these media statements have little value for the time being.
No more than the interview that Ziad Takieddine had granted to "Mediapart" in 2016 in which he explained that he had brought three suitcases of cash containing 5 million euros to the Ministry of the Interior, to Claude Guéant (twice) and to Nicolas Sarkozy (once), late 2006 - early 2007. He had to reiterate his accusations a few days later before the examining magistrate - at the time Serge Tournaire - so that justice could take it up and, in passing, indicted him for "complicity in corruption", "influence peddling" and "complicity in embezzlement of public funds".
We can also be surprised that, in his statements to "Paris Match" and BFMTV, Ziad Takieddine accuses Judge Tournaire of having distorted remarks ... which he made comfortably seated in his chair in front of the cameras of "Mediapart" And that he detailed to her several times in his office.
But the intermediary is no longer except for a contradiction.
Following this umpteenth turnaround, the new investigating judges - Aude Buresi and Marc Sommerer - could be tempted to summon him to act on this change of foot.
Except that Ziad Takieddine is currently on the run in Lebanon following his sentence to 5 years in prison handed down last June in the financial aspect of the Karachi attack - a case in which he had also changed versions several times.
Under the influence of an arrest warrant and under the threat of immediate imprisonment, it is hard to imagine him showing up in the judges' office to lay down his new black and white version.
Judges will likely decide to score the article in procedure.
Nicolas Sarkozy has in any case announced that he had asked his lawyer Thierry Herzog to request the lifting of his indictment and to initiate a procedure for slanderous denunciation against Ziad Takieddine.
New hearings to be expected
But if the Franco-Lebanese intermediary is indeed an important part of the accusation against the former head of state - especially in the corruption aspect - it is not the only one.
Several former Libyan dignitaries have also accused Nicolas Sarkozy of having benefited from the windfall of the Gaddafi regime, witnesses whose former President also seriously questions the reliability.
In this file with drawers, justice also updated several suspicious movements of his closest collaborators - Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux - in Libya in 2015, in the company of Ziad Takieddine.
Before the judges last month, Nicolas Sarkozy frankly stood out from his followers, believing that they had each made "a mistake".
But these meetings, the existence of which has not been called into question, are part of the arguments used by the investigating judges to justify his recent indictment for "criminal association", which appears less dependent on statements of variable geometry. by Ziad Takieddine.
The judges' suspicions are also based on an alleged second financing channel centered on a second intermediary, Alexandre Djouhri.
There again, Nicolas Sarkozy denies any payment of money and hammered it before the judges: "There has never been near or far, or in cash, or in transfer, the slightest Libyan cent to finance my campaign.
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.
"
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
The investigation is continuing and new hearings are expected.
Contacted, Me Elise Arfi, lawyer Ziad Takieddine, did not wish to speak.