Nicolas Sarkozy

On June 13th and 14th former president Nicolas Sarkozy was questioned by judges as part of an ongoing investigation into the fake retraction by Ziad Takieddine, a key witness in a parallel probe into Libya's alleged funding of the ex-head of state's 2007 election campaign. Under questioning the former president acknowledged that a key figure in the fake retraction case, Noël Dubus, had visited him to receive signed copies of his book. In one copy of his book Nicolas Sarkozy wrote 'Thanks for everything'. Yet businesswoman and paparazzi agency boss Michèle Marchand, who has been placed under formal investigation in the case, had previously denied that this episode even took place. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

After ten years of investigation, judges have decided that there is sufficient evidence to send former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial in the affair concerning the alleged illegal Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. The investigating judges are also sending three of the ex-president's ministers for trial in the same affair: Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth. As Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report, this is an unprecedented situation in French political and legal history.

A Paris appeals court last week upheld former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s conviction and jail sentence in 2021 for corruption and influence peddling. He is accused of offering to help a senior magistrate secure a comfortable post with Monaco’s Council of State in exchange for influence and information on legal procedures concerning him. Sarkozy and two co-accused, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and magistrate Gilbert Azibert, have now launched an ultimate appeal against their convictions. Mediapart has studied the detailed judgment of the appeals court, and publishes here extracts of the damning evidence it contains, and the story behind the case.

French prosecutors earlier this month recommended that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, along with three of his former ministers and nine other individuals, stand trial for the alleged illegal funding of his 2007 election campaign by the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Mediapart obtained access to the 425-page document in which the prosecutors detail the evidence and their conclusions. The Libyan financing arrangements could not have been carried out, they write, “without the consent and the perfect knowledge” of Sarkozy, for whom “the hoped-for advantage consisted of obtaining secret financial support for the 2007 electoral campaign”. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

Mediapart can reveal the latest developments that allowed judges to wrap up the Sarkozy-Libyan funding affair probe after nine long years of investigation. Those who are under investigation in the case, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy, now face the possibility of being sent to trial at a criminal court in Paris. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy received 300,000 euros during a period in which he attended a 2018 gathering in Moscow that was organised by the Russian state's main sovereign wealth fund, and at which he praised his “friend” Vladimir Putin. The money was paid by a company which bears the same name as a subsidiary of that sovereign fund. Fabrice Arfi and Yann Philippin report.

On Monday December 5th former French president Nicolas Sarkozy began an appeal hearing following his conviction for corruption in the so-called 'Paul Bismuth' or phone-tapping case. At the original trial the ex-head of state was given a jail sentence but has not served a single night in prison. Mediapart's legal affairs correspondent Michel Deléan explains why it is that French politicians who are convicted in corruption cases so very rarely serve jail time despite the heavy prison sentences that such offences can attract.

The 2022 World Cup, steeped in controversy, finally opened in Qatar on Sunday. All of those who, through multiple dealings and arrangements, accepted or promoted its hosting by the Gulf state, have an enormous amount to answer for over their responsibility for the consequences, notably the deaths of thousands of migrant construction workers, an environmental disaster and political scandal. Michaël Hajdenberg presents a brief analysis of what we know of the dark background to the tournament.

Previously-deleted digital conversations that have been retrieved by an IT expert show that well-connected Paris paparazzi boss Michèle 'Mimi' Marchand oversaw from start to finish an operation which led to the false retraction of a witness statement by Ziad Takieddine. Takieddine is a key witness in the affair that centres on claims that the Libyan regime helped fund Nicolas Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. In those same messages Marchand stated that she was keeping the former president – who was given the nickname 'Zébulon' – informed in real time of events concerning the Takieddine evidence retraction saga. Fabrice Arfi, Karl Laske and Antton Rouget report.

Active investigations in a mammoth and unprecedented nine-year judicial probe into the suspected illegal funding of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign by the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi drew to a close this month, leading to a second legal phase before charges are brought and a trial ordered. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske detail the principal conclusions of the investigations and the roles of the key suspects in this extraordinary and complex case.  

In what appears to be a significant development in the French judicial investigation into the suspected illegal financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign by the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, the probe has discovered evidence pointing to the involvement in the alleged funding of Thierry Gaubert, a longstanding friend and political ally of the former French president. This centres on the contents of a computer hard disk belonging to Gaubert, seized in 2011 in a separate case concerning him, and which have only now come to light. In this first of a two-part report, Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske detail the findings and their implications for Sarkozy.