Former Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi has confirmed that the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi secretly provided 50 million euros for Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign.
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"This financing by Mr. Gaddafi and Libya is certified by an official document,” said Mahmoudi, speaking via his lawyer, in response to questions submitted to him by Mediapart.
Mahmoudi himself validated the proposition to finance Sarkozy’s election bid as outlined in a document published by Mediapart on April 28th.
The document, signed by the then head of Libya's foreign intelligence agency, Moussa Koussa, detailed how Gaddafi’s regime had agreed to “support the electoral campaign” of Nicolas Sarkozy for the 2007 presidential elections, and for the “sum of fifty million euros” (click on the 'Prolonger' tab top of page for an English translation of the full text).
Dated December 10th 2006, the document also stated that an agreement on “the amount and method of payment” had been reached at a meeting two months earlier involving Brice Hortefeux, a longstanding friend and close political ally of Sarkozy and who was at the time a junior minister for local government, while Sarkozy was interior minister.
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Gaddafi's close aide, Bashir Saleh, then president of the Libyan African Portfolio (LAP), a sovereign wealth investment fund, one of the main investment arms of the regime, was in charge of supervising the payments.
Saleh was named as the addressee of the letter from Moussa Koussa authorising funds for Sarkozy’s 2007 election bid.
The payment to Sarkozy was destined to transit through the LAP, which is suspected of being one of the repositories for hiding funds used by the deposed Gaddafi regime.
Mahmoudi served as Secretary of the Libyan General Peoples’ Committee, a post equivalent to prime minister, from March 2006 until he fled Libya to Tunisia last August when Gaddafi's forces lost control of Tripoli. He was initially arrested and jailed by the Tunisian authorities for illegal entry into the country, a charge that was subsequently overturned, but he has since been held in a jail near Tunis pending his eventual extradition back to Libya.
Mediapart interviewed Mahmoudi on Wednesday May 2nd through his lawyer, Beshir Essid, who spent several hours with his client in prison and relayed his answers to precise questions submitted to him about the funding of Sarkozy’s 2007 election bid. Essid told Mediapart: "He [Mahmoudi] talked to me about the financing, the document and the amount, and the financing was indeed made by Gaddafi to Sarkozy."
“We took part in Mr Sarkozy’s success and in the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign,” Esside quoted Mahmoudi as saying. “I confirm that a document signed by Moussa Koussa exists, and that Monsieur Sarkozy did receive financing,” Mahmoudi told his lawyer.
"This financing by Mr. Gaddafi and Libya is certified by an official document signed by Moussa Koussa via the African financing fund," Mahmoudi told Essid. "The figure of 50 million euros is correct.”
Essid said Mahmoudi expressed surprise at Sarkozy’s commitment to the war against the Gaddafi regime. "He does not understand Mr. Sarkozy’s bitterness and his determination to be one of the main people leading the attack on the country that financed, supported and helped him for his campaign to the tune of 50 million euros," Essid said. "Sarkozy was one of those most hateful towards Mr. Gaddafi and his regime."
Following Mediapart’s publication last Saturday of the December 2006 document outlining the Libyan agreement to fund his 2007 campaign, the French president dismissed it as a fake. On Monday April 30th, Sarkozy filed an official complaint against Mediapart with the Paris public prosecutor’s office, citing “forgery and use of forgery”, “handling and receiving [forgeries]” and “publication of false information”.
Mediapart responded on May 2nd by lodging an official complaint against Sarkozy for calumny.
The French presidency was lent support in its attempts to discredit the document by both former LAP chief Bashir Saleh, and Gaddafi’s former foreign intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa.
Saleh, who currently enjoys residency in France under official protection despite figuring on an Interpol request for his arrest on behalf of Libya, where he is wanted on fraud charges, said on Sunday he had “reservations” about the authenticity of the document. Koussa, who is also wanted by Libya and who currently lives in protected exile in Qatar, described Mediapart’s report as “falsified stories”.
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC), told news agency Agence France-Presse on Wednesday that he had "found no reference to this letter in the Libyan archives".
However, Othman Bensasi, the NTC’s administrative director, contacted by Mediapart later on Wednesday, could not confirm his superior’s declarations. "I don’t know on what basis or according to what proof he said that,” Bensasi said. “As chairman of the NTC, I don’t see how he could have verified this document."
Meanwhile, following Mahmoudi’s comments to Medipart, his legal team held a press conference in Tunis on Thursday repeating his statements. During the press conference, another of his lawyers, Mabrouk Kourchid, said Mahmoudi believed his continued detention in Tunisia was due to his knowledge of Gaddafi’s funding of Sarkozy’s campaign. Kourchid quoted Mahmoudi as saying: "My arrest and my detention in Tunisia were instigated by the French president so that the details of the financing of his 2007 campaign are not revealed."
Amnesty International has warned that if Mahmoudi were to return to Libya, which has launched two extradition demands against him, he would be exposed to "real risks of serious violations of human rights, in particular torture, an extra-judiciary execution and an unjust trial."
Tunisian non-governmental organisations have also called on Tunis not to give Mahmoudi up to the Libyan authorities given the unstable security situation in the country.
During a visit to Tripoli in January, Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki said his government was seeking to "make sure 1,000% that there is a fair trial, and that there's an independent judiciary" before sending Mahmoudi back to Libya.
- Additional reporting by Caroline Donati and Rachida El-Azzouzi
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For more about the issues raised in this article, click on the links to Mediapart's investigations below:
French government stalls Interpol call for arrest of Gaddafi funding chief
Sarkozy attacks Mediapart over Gaddafi funding revelations
Gaddafi funding of Sarkozy election campaign: the proof
Exclusive: secret report describes Gaddafi funding of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaig
French IT group Bull horned by Libyan internet espionage deal
French judge finds key evidence in illegal funding probe
Net closes in on French presidency after funding 'scam' arrests
Arms dealer probe brings illegal funding scandal closer to Sarkozy
The secret financier who brings danger to the Sarkozy clan
Sarkozy, the arms dealer, and a secret 350 million-euro commission
Exclusive: how Sarkozy's team sought grace for Gaddafi's murderous henchman
Exlusive: how President Sarkozy's team dealt with Gaddafi
When Total paid the bill for the Elysée's secret emissary
The French-built stealth offroader that may be hiding Gaddafi
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English version: Sue Landau and Graham Tearse
(Editing by Graham Tearse)