Singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy was on Thursday questioned as a suspect in a witness tampering case against her husband, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, two sources said, reports Yahoo! News.
Sarkozy, 69, was charged* in October 2023 for illegal witness tampering in a case linked to allegations that he took money from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund one of his election campaigns.
Investigators suspect that several people close to Sarkozy were involved in pressuring a key witness in that case to retract a statement he made incriminating the former president.
Questioned as a witness in June last year, Franco-Italian Bruni-Sarkozy, 56, is now a suspect and was interviewed for nearly three hours on Thursday by France's anti-corruption unit, the source close to the case and a judicial source told AFP.
An investigation showed Bruni-Sarkozy deleted all messages exchanged with French "paparazzi queen" Michele Marchand on the day she was charged with witness tampering in June 2021.
AFP contacted her lawyers who confirmed authorities questioned Bruni-Sarkozy during a three-hour hearing.
"She was able to provide all the necessary clarifications and explanations", they added.
Read more of this AFP report published by Yahoo! News.
*Editor's note: Under a change to the French legal system introduced in 1993, a magistrate can decide if a suspect should be 'placed under investigation' (mis en examen), which is a status one step short of being charged (inculpé), if there is 'serious or concordant' evidence that they committed a crime. Some English-language media describe this status, peculiar to French criminal law, as that of being charged. In fact, it is only at the end of an investigation that a decision can be made to bring charges, in which case the accused is automatically sent for trial.