Carla Bruni-Sarkozy heard as “indicted” after Ziad Takieddine’s retraction

Carla Bruni was summoned on Thursday, May 2 in the morning to be heard in a free hearing as a defendant in the context of the judicial investigation relating to the conditions of Ziad Takieddine’s retraction, franceinfo learned on Thursday from a judicial source. Nicolas Sarkozy’s wife is interviewed in the premises of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF).

This judicial investigation was opened in May 2021 for “witness tampering”, “criminal conspiracy with a view to committing the offense of organized gang fraud” and “fraud with a view to committing the offense of corruption of foreign judicial personnel”.

Ziad Takieddine accuses Nicolas Sarkozy of having financed his 2007 presidential campaign with Libyan funds. In November 2020, the Franco-Lebanese intermediary, the main prosecution witness against the former president since 2012, recanted on BFMTV and Paris Match by declaring that the former head of state had no “not received a cent, cash or no cash, for the presidential election” of 2007 from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. On the run to Lebanon, to escape his conviction in the Karachi affair, Ziad Takieddine retracted his remarks two months later before the investigating magistrates.

In May 2021, the PNF opened a judicial investigation into these facts. At the beginning of October, Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted in this case for “concealment of witness tampering” and “criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing trial fraud by an organized gang”. He disputes the facts.