Investigators have estimated at least 608,000 euros the amount of the operation intended to obtain that the intermediary Ziad Takieddine withdraws his accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy on an alleged Libyan financing of his presidential campaign of 2007, indicated Tuesday a source close to the investigation, confirming information from Mediapart.
This figure was produced as part of the judicial investigation into suspicions of payments to Ziad Takieddine, with the possible endorsement of Nicolas Sarkozy, so that he withdraws his accusations against the former head of state.
The Franco-Lebanese, who had accused the latter since 2012, had made a spectacular about-face in November 2020 on BFMTV and Paris Match by declaring that Nicolas Sarkozy had in fact not benefited from financing from Muammar Gaddafi, before going back on his About two months later.
In this part of the case, nine people are indicted for witness tampering, criminal association or organized fraud.
The money, essentially mobilized by the financier Pierre Reynaud, was donated to various alleged protagonists of the operation, including the intermediary Noël Dubus, already convicted of fraud, an advertiser, Ziad Takieddine and a Lebanese close to the latter. .
In addition, the investigators got their hands on the interception of a telephone conversation between Arnaud Lagardère and Hervé Gattegno, respectively owner and publication director of Paris Match, which was confirmed by a source familiar with the matter.
In this recording, Hervé Gattegno seems not to exclude that Mimi Marchand, the paparazzi “popess” who is also indicted in this case, could have agreed on a financial arrangement with Ziad Takieddine, according to Mediapart.
He also says that she would have warned Nicolas Sarkozy of this draft article, considering that it was “a mistake”.
Asked by AFP, Mr. Gattegno’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, did not wish to react.
According to information from Mediapart, confirmed by the source close to the file, Mr. Gattegno, heard in free hearing by the investigators in December 2021, assured that he did not want Nicolas Sarkozy to be informed of this report and that he did not On his side, he had not carried out any financial dealings.
Contacted, the lawyers of the former president, Me Thierry Herzog, of Mimi Marchand, Me Caroline Toby, and of the financier Pierre Reynaud, Me Margaux Durand-Poincloux did not wish to comment.
In addition, according to sources familiar with the matter and a judicial source, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) has extended the investigation to facts of “concealment of witness tampering”.
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04/18/2023 21:07:41 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP