Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy in his court statement published yesterday blasted what he said was a lack of evidence for corruption charges against him over claims that late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi funded his 2007 election campaign.
The day after he was charged, the 63-year-old said in the statement published by the Figaro newspaper that he had been in “living hell” since the allegations emerged in 2011.
Demanding he be treated as a witness rather than a suspect, he urged magistrates to consider “the violence of the injustice” if it was proven, as he claims, that the accusations are a “manipulation by the dictator Qaddafi or his gang.”
“In the 24 hours of my detention, I have tried with all my might to show that the serious corroborating evidence required to charge someone did not exist,” Sarkozy said. “I stand accused without any tangible evidence through comments made by Mr Qaddafi, his son, his nephew, his cousin, his spokesman, his former prime minister.”
The allegations that Sarkozy took money from Qaddafi — who he helped to topple in 2011 — are the most serious of a myriad of investigations dogging him since he left office in 2012.
Judges on Wednesday decided they had enough evidence to charge the one-term president after five years of investigation and two days of questioning in police custody.
Sarkozy was charged with corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of Libyan public money, a judiciary source said.
“I’ve been living the hell of this slander since March 11, 2011,” when the allegations first emerged, Sarkozy said.
He is to have six months to appeal the charges and judges would have to make a further decision about whether they have sufficient proof to take the case to trial.
Investigators have since 2013 been looking into claims by several figures in Qaddafi’s ousted regime, including his son, Saif al-Islam, that Sarkozy’s campaign received cash from him.
A few months after his 2007 election, Sarkozy gave Qaddafi the red-carpet treatment during a state visit, which critics denounced as an attempt to rehabilitate an international pariah.
Saif al-Islam in 2011 told Euronews that Sarkozy must “give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign.”
Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as the rantings of vindictive Qaddafi loyalists.
He has also sued the investigative Web site Mediapart for publishing a document allegedly signed by the Libyan intelligence chief showing that Qaddafi agreed to give Sarkozy up to 50 million euros (US$61.7 million).
Sarkozy in his statement lashed out at businessman Ziad Takieddine, who claims to have delivered three cash-stuffed suitcases from Qaddafi in 2006 and 2007.
Takieddine, who claimed he provided 5 million euros in three suitcases to Sarkozy and his chief of staff Claude Gueant, has “highly suspect characteristics and a questionable past,” Sarkozy said.
The legal investigation is also looking into a 500,000 euro foreign cash transfer to former French minister of the interior Claude Gueant and the 2009 sale of a luxury villa to a Libyan investment fund.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS