The announcement of former French president Nikolas Sarkozy's indictment came as little surprise, especially following the French daily Libération's disclosure in early September of Sarkozy's future summons to a hearing. On Friday, October 6, Sarkozy was indicted for "concealment of witness tampering" and "participation in an association of criminals with a view to committing the offense of judgment fraud in an organized group." He has also been placed under assisted witness status for "participation in a criminal organization with a view to committing the offense of active corruption of foreign judicial personnel" in Lebanon, according to information reported by a judicial source to Le Monde, as part of the investigation into the retraction of businessman Ziad Takieddine.
In a statement sent to Agence France Presse (AFP), the former French president's lawyers, Jean-Michel Darrois and Christophe Ingrain, said he was "firmly resolved to assert his rights, establish the truth and defend his honor."
Nine other people have already been indicted in this case, including celebrity journalist Michèle Marchand (known as "Mimi"), for witness tampering and criminal conspiracy. Mimi, who is close to Sarkozy and Macron's wives, is suspected of having orchestrated Takieddine's public retraction.
In November 2020, French broadcaster BFM-TV and the weekly magazine Paris Match announced they had landed a "scoop." In front of the camera, the Lebanese intermediary went back on his statements made to judges between 2013 and 2020 according to which he had given Sarkozy, as well as those close to him, the equivalent of €5 million in Libyan money in order to finance his 2007 presidential campaign. "Mr. Sarkozy did not have Libyan financing (...), Mr. Gaddafi could not have done that because he never did," Takieddine said from Lebanon, where he has been on the run since being sentenced to five years prison in France over the Karachi affair. He also accused the judge then in charge of the investigation, Serge Tournaire, of having made him "say things that are totally contrary" to those he had said before the magistrate.
Takieddine's 180 comes at just the right time for the former president, who was indicted a month earlier for criminal association as part of the investigation into the financing of his campaign. "The truth is finally out (...) The main accuser acknowledged his lies," Sarkozy said in a Facebook statement shortly after the retraction was broadcast on BFM.
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