Alain Juillet is a small, lively and often funny man who carries his 82 years with vigor. He joined the special services in 1964 and spent most of his career with the General Directorate of External Security, France's foreign intelligence agency. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a "senior economic intelligence officer" in the prime minister's office. During the trial on suspected Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign, he was cited by the prosecution. He criticized the two intermediaries, Ziad Takieddine and Alexandre Djouhri, but in no way undermined Sarkozy's defense.
Around 2005, the Libyans wanted to renew their fleet of fighter jets, explained Juillet on Wednesday, January 29, before the criminal court in Paris. Defense multinational Safran proposed refurbishing all their aircraft, including the Russian Migs, while military aircraft manufacturer Dassault wanted to repair its Mirages and sell new ones. "It was a Franco-French war," said the senior official, "which wasn't very good." Takieddine lobbied in favor of Safran and boasted of being close to Abdullah al-Senoussi, Gaddafi's brother-in-law and the regime’s second-in-command. Senoussi, responsible for the Lockerbie, United Kingdom, and UTA DC-10 bombings, had been sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment in France in 1999. Tripoli openly sought to lift his arrest warrant, and Takieddine was determined to make it happen.
"I summoned the groups and told them they had to stop this stupid competition," said the witness. "And as Takieddine was walking around with a letter he said had been signed by Nicolas Sarkozy, we had lunch together. I told him it was scandalous and that he couldn't go on: Senoussi couldn't be pardoned. And if the Libyan understood that he had been deceived, it could lead to terrorism. Takieddine was very aggressive. Then, when you stand up to him, he calms down, he's a cold animal." Juillet said he was convinced that the letter was forged, "prepared by comrade Takieddine."
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