France-based businessman and arms dealer Ziad Takieddine is a key witness in an ongoing French judicial probe into suspected illegal party financing through commissions paid in a major French weapons sale to Pakistan. In a series of investigations that began in July, Mediapart has revealed the very close and longstanding links between Takieddine and the inner circle of advisors and aides surrounding Nicolas Sarkozy - before and after he became French president - and for whose office he served as a secret diplomatic and commercial emissary. Here, Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske reveal how Takieddine, while negotiating a rapprochement between France and Libya, served as a protector for a nephew of Colonel Mumamar Gaddafi after he was charged in London with ‘grievous bodily harm' upon two escort girls.
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It was a particularly unsavoury mission that Ziad Takieddine, the arms dealer who served as the French presidency's secret envoy to Riyadh, Tripoli and Damascus, took on between 2006 and 2008. The events illustrate one side of the murky backdrop to the still quite recent period when officials in France and Britain, now engaged in a military campaign against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, were both happy to compromise decisions of justice in exchange for commerce with Tripoli.
Takieddine acted as a protector for Gaddafi's nephew, Mohammed al-Senussi, after the latter was charged in Britain, in 2006, with a particularly savage attack on two Brazilian escort girls, Karen Etchebery and Patricia Bech, at his London townhouse. Takieddine's involvement in the case, revealed for the first time here, raises further disturbing questions on the role of the Franco-Lebanese businessman as a secret diplomatic and commercial emissary for the highest offices of French government.
Mediapart's very detailed revelations about the nature and extent of his activities and relations with the staff of French President Nicolas Sarkozy can be found by clicking on the links at the top of this page, or at the end of this article.
According to documents obtained by Mediapart, the arms dealer gave Mohammed al-Senussi significant financial and legal assistance, as well as renting in his name the property Senussi occupied in the British capital. He also lobbied the then-British foreign minister for charges against Senussi to be dropped "in the interests" of Britain. To all accounts, the essence of that warning was heeded by the British authorities.
During this period, as Mediapart has already revealed, Takieddine was also negotiating lucrative contracts in Libya on behalf of Nicolas Sarkozy's staff, both before and after Sarkozy was elected, in 2007, as president of France (1).
In 2007, Takieddine spent more than one million euros in helping Senussi in legal fees, private detective services, property rental and travel on yachts and private jets.
Mohammed al-Senussi is the son of Gaddafi's longstanding security chief, Abdullah Senussi, currently head of Libyan military intelligence. Abdullah Senussi was sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a French court in 1999 for his part in the 1989 bombing of a French UTA airline DC10 passenger plane over Niger, in which 170 people were killed, for which an international arrest warrant remains issued against him. He was also implicated in the bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988 which left 270 people dead. In June this year, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of "murder and crimes against humanity" related to events in the recent upheavals in Libya.
Last month, Mediapart revealed how President Sarkozy's staff went to strenuous efforts, using Takieddine as an intermediary, to satisfy the Libyan regime's demands that the judicial consequences of Senussi senior's life imprisonment sentence be eased, or that he be the object of a re-trial.
Senussi's son Mohammed was arrested shortly after the November 17th 2006 assault on the two Brazilian escort girls at his home in central London. He was charged with unlawful wounding, inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
In the spring of 2007, Ziad Takieddine prepared a draught letter he was preparing to send to then-British foreign secretary Margaret Beckett. "If Mohammed is sentenced to a prison term, it could be a matter of concern for relations between Libya and the United Kingdom," he wrote in the draught text on April 5th 2007 (2). "Which is why it is in the interests of the United Kingdom not to pursue with the proceedings."
In February this year, British tabloid The Mail on Sunday revealed how the British foreign affairs ministry (the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) put pressure on the public prosecution services to have the case dropped because it feared it could endanger a gigantic contract being discussed between the Libyans and British oil giant BP.
"Before al-Sanussi's trial began, letters were sent by high-ranking Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) officials to the then Director of Public Prosecutions, Sir Ken MacDonald," the paper reported. "The letters made it clear to the DPP - now a life peer and Lord MacDonald of River Glaven - that Britain's financial interests could be damaged if the case was pursued."
"One of the letters, seen by The Mail on Sunday, reads: ‘We are aware that the decision to prosecute or not is entirely a matter for you but there are significant diplomatic and commercial considerations in this case in relation to the Libyan government,
which you may not be aware of.'"
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1:Nicolas Sarkozy was French interior minister, under then-President Jacques Chirac, from May 7th 2002 until March 30th 2004. He became finance minister from March 31st 2004 until November 29th 2004, again under President Chirac. He was re-appointed interior minister, still under the presidency of Jacques Chirac, from June 2nd 2005, until March 26th 2007. Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president of France in 2007 and took up his office on May 16th 2007.
2: The words quoted in this draught text here are a translation into English from an account of the text in French.
'There was so much blood I couldn't breathe'
The Mail on Sunday revealed that the pressure began in August 2007, when British BP was involved in the negotiations for a £15 billion (more than 17 billion-euro) oil and gas contract with Libya. The then-British foreign secretary was David Miliband, (brother of current Labour Party leader Ed Miliband), who succeeded Beckett in June that year, following the resignation of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who himself was succeeded by Gordon Brown.
The Mail on Sunday reported that it "understood" that Blair had discussed the gigantic BP contract with Gaddafi in Tripoli in June 2007, during his last trip abroad as prime minister.
The two escort girls, Brazilian nationals Karen Etchebery and Patricia Bech, had reportedly first met Senussi in April 2006. In an interview in March this year, Etchebery told the Mail on Sunday that Senussi would pay them £1,000 each to spend the night at what she described as his "five-story townhouse" in Ovington Mews, Kensington, close to the Harrods department store. This is the account Etchebery gave the Mail on Sunday about what happened on the night of November 17th 2006:
"I didn't want to go. I wasn't very well but Patricia kept calling me, again and again, saying I needed to pick her up and go to Mohammed's," Etchebery told the paper. "In the end I agreed. We got there about 11pm and there was another guy there who he said was his cousin. "
"We had some drinks. Patricia was with Mohammed and I went downstairs to the kitchen with the cousin. He started touching me and I told him no, I didn't want that. Another night I might have but I felt really sick and said, ‘Take the money back if that's what it's for.' I went upstairs and told Patricia I wanted to leave. She said she would leave too."
"Mohammed stood in the doorway and said, ‘You're not leaving unless you give me the money back.' We gave him the money, no problem. Then Patricia went to the door and he picked her up and threw her. I saw her head hitting the floor, it bounced three times like a football."
"I went to help her. As I bent down to lift up her head, I turned and I just remember hearing the words, ‘And you.' The next thing I knew I woke up on the other side of the room with blood everywhere. I don't know how long I was out for, I just remember waking up and using my hands against the wall to try and get up. Eventually, I said to Patricia, ‘Let's go', but she couldn't move. She was on the floor on all fours. I picked her up with one hand and held my hand over my face with the other. There was so much blood coming from my mouth I couldn't breathe."
"I dragged us to the door but as we tried to leave he wanted to hit me some more. It was only his cousin holding him back that stopped him."
Etchebery said she called a driver who often transported the young women to their assignments and that they went straight to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital where they arrived at about 2a.m. She said seven of her facial bones were broken, including the splitting in two of the roof of her mouth, and that she came close to losing the use of her left eye.
Senussi was arrested by police at his home the following day. Charged with unlawful wounding, inflicting grievous bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, he was released on bail and sent for trial at Blackfriars Crown Court in July, 2007. Bech refused to press charges, although Etchebery did.
But the case, due to last for three weeks, collapsed after just ten days when Etchebery withdrew her evidence. She claimed she feared reprisals from Senussi and his entourage after a campaign of intimidation in the weeks leading up to the trial.
She told the Mail on Sunday: "If I went anywhere, people would take pictures, they'd brush past me in the street and say, ‘Go home'. If I crossed the road a Range Rover would come towards me and pretend to try and run me over. Different people would call and say, ‘It would be very easy to finish you off'".
"They knew things even I didn't know. They went to my auntie's house in Brazil. Even I didn't know her address," she told the paper.
"They went to my cousin's as well. They went to the spa where my brother works in London. It was so stressful, I started taking antidepressants."
"One time a man said, ‘You know you're dealing with terrorist people.' It made sense, there was something not normal there. They were too powerful."
Mediapart has obtained access to financial accounts documents belonging to Takieddine which show the extent of his generosity towards Senussi between November 2006 and August 2007. There is mention of a payment of legal fees for "Mohammed", dated July 16th 2007, amounting to £115,000 (more than 130,000 euros). There is also mention of the payment of £110,339 (about 126,000 euros) in private detective fees paid by Takieddine.
Judge tells Senussi he was 'very fortunate'
It also transpires that the London townhouse where the two Brazilian women were assaulted, situated at 12, Ovington Mews, was rented in Takieddine's name. In an attestation signed on March 13th 2007, he confirmed that he was renting the house for the exclusive use of Senussi, with an advance payment of one year's rental, which he added was refunded by Senussi's father.
According to the documents obtained by Mediapart, the townhouse was rented for the price of £5,000 (about 5,700 euros) per week for a period of 52 weeks. Takieddine also paid £20,000 (about 22,800 euros) in expenses linked to the hiring of a butler, called Paul. In October 2007, Takieddine was asked by estate agents Turnkey Estates to pay more than £43,000 (about 49,000 euros) in repairs to damages incurred in the house.
The documents show Takieddine also paid for Senussi to travel by private jet to Marbella, in southern Spain, and to Egypt, as well as for cruises on two luxury yachts, the Bellissima and Mangusta, which separately cost 110,000 euros and 135,000 euros.
In September 2007 the proceedings against Mohammed Senussi were dropped altogether. Presiding judge David Martineau told Sanussi he was "very fortunate" to escape a full trial because there was independent evidence to support the charges.
After that date, Takieddine continued to give financial support to Senussi, according to the documents in Mediapart's possession. In a table of expenses for ‘Moh', dated April 18th 2008, the total reaches 596,000 euros. Of that sum, the documents' wording suggests that 130,000 euros were paid in cash, on March 14th 2008, to Lebanese fashion designer Elie Saab and subsequently "delivered" to Senussi.
Questioned by Mediapart, Saab's spokesman Marwan Maatouk said "it is possible that Monsieur Ziad Takieddine had been a client of the label". However, he denied that any cash sum had been "delivered" to Mohammed Senussi. Pressed further, he said: "Please take note that we have no further comment to make on this subject."
There is no suggestion in the documents obtained by Mediapart that Takieddine informed the French authorities of the services he rendered to Mohammed Senussi.
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For more from Mediapart's series of investigations into the role and activities of Ziad Takieddine:The secret financier who brings danger to the Sarkozy clan
Sarkozy, the arms dealer, and a secret 350 million-euro commission
The well-connected arms dealer and his tax returns
How Sarkozy aides saved arms dealer from paradise island 'death blow'
Exclusive: how Sarkozy's team sought grace for Gaddafi's murderous henchman
The arms dealer and his Paris party for the glitterati
Exlusive: how President Sarkozy's team dealt with Gaddafi
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