Carla Bruni-Sarkozy reportedly summoned for possible indictment in 2007 campaign probe

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been mobilized for possible indictment in the investigation right into the retraction of a crucial witness who at first charged her hubby, Nicolas Sarkozy, of financing his 2007 governmental campaign with Libyan funds, according to media records.

Franco-Lebanese business owner Ziad Takieddine had asserted to have actually supplied three suitcases containing a total of EUR5 million in money in 2006 and 2007 to help finance Sarkozy’s project. Yet in 2020, Takieddine suddenly withdrawed his incriminating testimony, raising suspicions that Sarkozy might have pressured the witness to transform his mind.

The previous head of state was charged in October on suspicion of authorizing the maneuvers. In April, his lawyers submitted an activity to annul this measure and, more recently, a request to move the examination.

An individual close to the instance told AFP on Saturday that Bruni might face charges of hiding witness meddling, criminal conspiracy to prepare arranged test scams and bribery of Lebanese judicial employees. The version, singer and former première dame has currently been doubted two times by French anti-corruption detectives, first as a witness in June 2023, then as a suspect last month.

Aspects of the probe reported by AFP and Le Parisien show that the suspicions of the investigators versus Bruni have been enhanced because they located a phone coming from the previous head of a number of paparazzi firms, Michèle “Mimi” Marchand, that was accused in the event in 2021. According to the court, Marchand utilized this phone to send messages to the previous presidential couple and played a role in the false retraction of Takieddine.