Keyword: Nicoals Sarkozy

Death of Libyan minister linked to Sarkozy election funding 'highly suspicious'

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Shukri Ghanem in December 2007 when he was Libya's oil minister. © Reuters Shukri Ghanem in December 2007 when he was Libya's oil minister. © Reuters

Officially Shukri Ghanem died after suffering a heart attack and falling into the River Danube where he drowned. But few people have ever believed this official version of the former Libyan oil minister's death in Vienna in April 2012. Hillary Clinton's leaked emails show that her entourage and American diplomats considered at the time that Ghanem's death was “highly suspicious”. Mediapart has also contacted an acquaintance of the former oil minister in Vienna who has raised several potential theories behind the Libyan's death, including one involving “bribes” to politicians in France, Italy – and Britain. Agathe Duparc reports from Geneva.

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Revealed: the 2007 notebook that detailed Sarkozy's Libyan election funding

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Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in December 2007. © Reuters Muammar Gaddafi and Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris in December 2007. © Reuters

A handwritten notebook kept by a senior Libyan figure details three payments made by Gaddafi's regime to fund Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election campaign, Mediapart can reveal. Shukri Ghanem, who was then Libya's oil minister, took notes on the three payments made in 2007, which came to a total of 6.5 million euros. Ghanem later fled the North Africa country and was found dead in Austria in 2012. The discovery of his personal notebook and its entries from 2007 undermine claims by Sarkozy's camp that allegations of illegal Libyan funding are based on forged documents written after Gaddafi's fall from power. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

Former minister detained over Sarkozy Libya finance allegations

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Former interior minister Claude Guéant is being quizzed over 500,000 euro payment which he says came from sale of a 17th century painting.

Bettencourt affair: case dismissed against Sarkozy

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After a long and politically explosive legal saga, the proceedings against Nicolas Sarkozy in relation to the Bettencourt affair have been dropped. The former president, who had denied any wrongdoing, had faced allegations that he took advantage of the mental frailty of L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt to get cash for his 2007 election campaign. But on Monday the investigating magistrates in charge of this high-profile case decided not to send the former president to court to face charges. Allies believe this clears the path to his return to French politics. However ten others, including former employment minister and ex-UMP treasurer Éric Woerth, are to stand trial over the Bettencourt affair. Michel Deléan reports.

Exclusive: secret report describes Gaddafi funding of Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign

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© (Reuters) © (Reuters)

According to information contained in a confidential report prepared by a recognised French expert on terrorism and terrorist financing, President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign received up to 50 million euros in secret funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The document, to which Mediapart has gained exclusive access and details of which are published here, suggests the money transited by a covert financial network, via Panama and a Swiss bank account, allegedly organized by Paris-based arms dealer Ziad Takieddine.