It comes as further proof that the Libyan regime funded Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign. On Wednesday Tahaer Dahec, a Tunisian journalist who became a key figure in Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, stated that he was present at an hotel in Tripoli when senior regime figures negotiated the financing of Sarkozy's successful attempt to become French president. “Libya helped Sarkozy, everyone knows that, the amount is known, but I was a witness and was present at the time of the negotiations,” he said. His revelations came as French TV station France 3 broadcast an audio interview with Colonel Gaddafi in 2011 in which the dictator spoke about his financial support for the Sarkozy campaign. A formal investigation into the allegations is currently being carried out by independent examining magistrates in France.
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Dahec made his statement after giving evidence to a French judge in relation to separate claims that he was tortured in Libya after the fall of the Gaddafi regime, with some of the torture allegedly carried out by French agents. Speaking at the Paris offices of his lawyer Éric Moutet, Dahec, 62, said he was “ready to speak to the justice system on the issue of Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign funding”. He added: “The discussions took place at the Corinthia Hotel in Tripoli in October 2006. A very high-level French diplomat, who is still alive, was present. The amount was 57 million euros.”
Tahaer Dahec said he would give “details to the justice system” of the affair plus evidence that the meeting at the luxury hotel took place. He added that the senior officials representing Libya at the negotiations were Bashir Saleh and Abdullah Senussi, Gaddafi's chief of staff and the country's intelligence agency chief respectively. Both are known to have been involved in the Libyan funding of the election campaign and Senussi, currently detained in Libya on war crime charges, is said to be willing to talk about the affair.
This is the first time Dahec has spoken openly about his presence at the secret negotiations to fund Sarkozy's campaign, though he was interviewed by journalist Catherine Graciet for her book Sarkozy-Kadhafi – Histoire secrète d’une trahison, ('Sarkozy-Gaddafi - The secret story of a betrayal') published late last year. In the book, in which only his first name is given, Dahec says that seven million of the 57 million euros involved in the transaction were earmarked for a middle man.
In April 2012 Mediapart published details of an official Libyan document, drawn up by the Libyan secret services and dated December 10th 2006, that confirmed the wishes of the Libyan authorities to “support the election campaign” of Nicolas Sarkozy and approved the decision of Gaddafi to pay 50 million euros to the French presidential candidate in 2007.
On Wednesday morning Dahec gave evidence to investigating judge Roger Le Loire in relation to allegations that he was tortured after the Libyan regime was toppled in 2011. Dahec, a former reporter on the weekly newspaper La Marche verte and who supported the Gaddafi regime before moving up to be a senior figure in Libya's revolutionary committees, was detained in Tripoli on 21st September 2011. “When I was arrested they found telephone numbers of people close to Gaddafi on me, I couldn't deny knowing them,” he said at his lawyer's office.
Dahec says after his arrest a black sack was put over his head and he was taken to a seaside hotel at Gargaresh west of the capital which was used as a detention centre by the military committee or 'katibat' in charge of that part of Libya after the revolution. Several hundred prisoners are said to have been detained at this centre, and a number of summary executions have reportedly been carried out there.
The former Tunisian journalist says that once at the centre he was tortured by French agents. On Wednesday he gave the judge detailed descriptions of the three agents he said were involved, two men who carried out the torture itself using electric shocks and beatings, and a woman who filmed the interrogations. He also handed the judge reports from medical experts detailing the physical effects of the torture. “The French asked me about Gaddafi's children, the location of weapons dumps and money,” Dahec said.
Dahec was twice released by his captors “to act as bait” and on October 27th 2011 he managed to get away entirely, obtaining a border pass from the Tunisian consulate in Libya that enabled him to leave the country. According to a Tunisian diplomatic communication the Libyan authorities were soon searching for him. A captain from the Libyan military council who went to the Tunisian consulate looking for information said that Dahec “was acting under the orders of the former Libyan prime minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi in coordination with Libyan diplomats working in Tunisia”.
In May 2012 al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi confirmed to Mediapart that the Gaddafi regime had handed over 50 million euros to fund the Sarkozy campaign.
Below are some of the main articles published by Mediapart on this affair:
- Exclusive: secret report describes Gaddafi funding of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign
- Gaddafi funding of Sarkozy election campaign: the proof
- Former Libyan PM confirms Gaddafi gave Sarkozy 50M euros for election campaign
- Another Gaddafi aide details Libyan funding of Sarkozy
- Gaddafi-Sarkozy corruption affair: ex-spy chief 'ready to help French investigation'
- Judicial investigation launched into Gaddafi's suspected financing of Sarkozy election campaign
- Extradited former Libyan premier wanted to speak to French judge over illegal election campaign funding
- French government stalls Interpol call for arrest of Gaddafi funding chief
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English version by Michael Streeter