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.
All-expenses paid trips, luxury watches, oodles of cash and a million dollars: the so-called “crook of the century”, French businessman Arnaud Mimran, has spoken at great length in a prison cell bugged by the judicial authorities about his friend 'Bibi' – the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The convicted fraudster, who is also suspected of involvement in three murders – which he strongly denies - spoke, too, about his relations with French MP Meyer Habib. Fabrice Arfi reports.
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.
The practice of using sheep rather than mowers to keep down the grass in green spaces has grown massively in popularity over the last decade in France. It is seen as environmentally-friendly, quieter - and more cost effective. But behind the scenes there is fierce competition for market share between some of the companies and individuals that oversee the sheep grazing, in what can be a lucrative business. And as Floriane Louison reports, there are fears this competition can come at the price of the animals' well-being, and broader concerns that eco-grazing may amount to little more than a form of 'greenwashing'.
A preliminary investigation into rape and sexual assault allegations concerning the actor and director, who is perhaps best known for directing the 2019 film 'La Belle Époque', was opened on July 5th by Paris prosecutors. When approached, Nicolas Bedos, who benefits from a presumption of innocence, declined to comment. Four women have spoken to Mediapart about the film director. Marine Turchi reports.
Many French media outlets continue to harbour clichéd views of life in working class areas and this in turn leads to bias in how events in the country's suburbs – often places of high immigration and poverty - are covered. Many newsroom journalists are unhappy at the persistence of such views, but say they choose to keep silent for fear of being mocked or being accused of a lack of neutrality. Yunnes Abzouz investigates.
France’s 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets, the subject of an ongoing French judicial investigation, is mired by suspected corruption involving politicians and industrialists. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who signed the deal, prepares to attend France’s Bastille Day celebrations as guest of honour, documents obtained by Mediapart reveal how Modi’s billionaire friend, Anil Ambani, boss of the Indian conglomerate Reliance Group, which was handed a lucrative contract as a condition of the Rafale sale, directly solicited the intervention of then economy minister Emmanuel Macron and finance minister Michel Sapin in a bid to escape a 151-million-euro tax claim against his French subsidiary. The tax adjustment was finally cut down to 6.6 million euros. Yann Philippin reports.
Mediapart can reveal that close family members of Russians sanctioned after the invasion of Ukraine are continuing to use their luxury properties in France, which have escaped from being frozen by the French Treasury as assets. Among those benefiting include family members of Vladimir Putin's veteran spokesperson Dmitry Peskov and several oligarchs. The revelations emerge from a joint investigation carried out with the German NGO Civil Forum for Asset Recovery (CIFAR) and media network European Investigative Collaborations (EIC). Sébastien Bourdon, Yann Philippin and Alexandre Brutelle (CIFAR) report.
The French government has introduced a controversial national database for monitoring the evolution of children born to jihadist parents and who have been returned to France from camps in Syria. The system, officially described as ensuring the “protection” of the minors and to prevent them “engaging in a process of delinquency or radicalisation”, contains very sensitive personal information about the children, and can be accessed by a wide range of administrations. It has come in for sharp criticism from rights campaigners, and faces a legal challenge before the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, while Mediapart has learnt that the public prosecution services’ anti-terrorist branch has declined to participate in it. David Perrotin and Matthieu Suc report.
French luxury cruise ship firm Compagnie du Ponant, owned by billionaire François Pinault, operates five-star voyages to Antarctica, notably on its state-of-the-art, ice-breaking liner, Le Commandant Charcot. The cruises are advertised as environmentally responsible, with onboard conferences by naturalists to educate the passengers on the habitat of the Earth’s last virgin continent. In fact, the boats, registered in a French tax-friendly overseas territory, are highly polluting, and the increasingly popular tourist traffic to the Antarctic region is contributing to the alarming rate of melting of its ice sheet. Mickaël Correia reports.
