Lawyers acting for Mediapart have officially asked the French authorities to intervene to make sure that a key witness over the allegations that Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign was funded by the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is heard by a French judge in Libya.
Former Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who has already confirmed that Gaddafi's regime secretly provided 50 million euros for Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, was extradited from Tunisia to Libya in the early hours of last Sunday despite fears he could face torture in his home country.
Tunisian lawyers representing Mahmoudi, who is said to have been beaten and insulted during his first interrogation, say they have not been able to contact him since Sunday.
Now, in a letter to the chief prosecutor in Paris, François Molins, lawyers acting for Mediapart have called on the authorities in France to ensure that Mahmoudi is interviewed by a French judge in the Libyan capital Tripoli. Shortly before his controversial extradition, Mahmoudi's own lawyers made contact with a French investigating judge saying he wanted to “tell all” about Libyan funding of French political campaigns and the “real nature” of Franco-Libyan relations.
“Justice must act in the most perfect independence and it is up to the state authorities to act at diplomatic level to allow justice to do its work in a judicial setting free from all pressure of whatever state authority,” write lawyers Jean-Pierre Mignard and Emmanuel Tordjman.
On May 3rd Mediapart's lawyers had written to the Paris prosecutor to warn him about the threats faced by Mahmoudi if he returned to Libya. In their latest letter they say: “We are completely unaware if the steps have been taken by the French justice system, and above all yourself, the sole authority competent to act, in order that the Tunisian authorities be notified that a formal international request (1) could be launched to ensure that he [Mahmoudi] is heard.”
Mahmoudi is regarded as a key witness to the relationship between Nicolas Sarkozy and the Gaddafi regime between the years 2005 and 2011, when the Libyan leader was deposed, with the help of NATO forces.
He 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. Mahmoudi was initially arrested and jailed by the Tunisian authorities for illegal entry into the country, a charge that was subsequently overturned, but had been held in a jail near Tunis pending his extradition.
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1: The French term is commission rogatoire internationale, which means a formal request from one judicial authority for help from another. The legal term in English is letters rogatory.
'He was afraid he would be killed'
Human rights organisations had warned that if the ex-premier were to be extradited back to Libya he could face torture.
Since his controversial extradition – which has caused a political row in Tunisia – Mahmoudi has been interrogated at least once, during which he is said to have been beaten and insulted. One of his lawyers in Tunisia Mabrouk Korchid said they have not had any news of their client since Sunday.
“I am very worried. The Libyan authorities that I have contacted, whether it be the ministry of defence, justice or the interior, give us no information. Neither on his detention nor his state of health.” Korchid added: “I haven't even been able to get the official statement of his extradition!”
The Libyan authorities did, though, respond to one report in a Palestinian newspaper claiming that Mahmoudi was dead, insisting that he was alive, being “well treated” and would get a fair hearing.
However Korchid said before the extradition took place his client feared the worst. “He told me that if he were extradited he was afraid he would be tortured and liquidated.”
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English version: Michael Streeter