Gaddafi spy chief tells French judges he oversaw 7m-euro payment for Sarkozy election campaign
As part of their investigation into the suspected funding by the Gaddafi regime in Libya of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign, two French judges travelled to Tripoli earlier this month when they questioned, for the first time face-to-face, Gaddafi’s former spy chief, and brother-in-law, Mohamed Abdulla Senussi. Mediapart has gained access to extracts from the statements provided by Senussi, who detailed how he oversaw the payment of 7 million euros for Sarkozy’s campaign, as ordered by Gaddafi. He also confirmed that, as part of the deal, the former French president’s personal lawyer and friend Thierry Herzog was involved in moves to overturn an international arrest warrant issued against Senussi after his conviction in absentia by a Paris court for his part in the blowing up of a French airliner in 1989.
TwoTwo Paris-based magistrates leading the investigation into the suspected funding by the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign arrived in Libya earlier this month, protected by an escort of an elite French gendarmerie unit, the GIGN, to interview two key witnesses from the former regime.
