Alleged Libyan funding of Sarkozy's campaign leads to new arrests

A journalist from the magazine "Paris Match" and the director of a famous paparazzi agency were arrested on Thursday, June 3 in France, on suspicion of manipulating witnesses in the case of alleged Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy's presidential campaign in 2007.

Sources close to the case told AFP that the investigation focuses on suspicions of "witness manipulation" and "criminal association" related to an interview given in November by intermediary Ziad Takieddine to Paris Match journalist, who travelled to Lebanon for this purpose, accompanied by a photographer from the BestImage agency.

In the interview, Takieddine dropped the charges against the former head of state, who, at first, he had accused of receiving money from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for the election campaign.

According to the sources, searches were carried out on Thursday in the homes of the head of BestImage, Michèle Marchand, and the journalist of Paris Match François de Labarre. The latter was released at night without charges, his lawyer told AFP.

In a statement, the magazine's director, Constance Benqué, denounced "an imprisonment contrary to all democratic principles", which amounts to a "form of intimidation". Reporters Without Borders (RSF) secretary general Christophe Deloire expressed on Twitter that the arrest was "obviously disproportionate" and is part of "a deplorable legal process".

The interview with Takieddine was published shortly after his arrest in Lebanon in the context of a court case against him. The French newspaper "Libération" in March evoked suspicious fund movements that could point to possible deals in parallel with the interview.

According to the Mediapart portal, "this process revealed clandestine negotiations with Takieddine to obtain his retraction in the case of Libya".

Later questioned by French investigating judges in Beirut, the intermediary picked up the first version of the Libyan financing and claimed that Paris Match distorted the words. The magazine belongs to the Lagardère group, whose supervisory board has Sarkozy among its members.

The former president was sentenced in March to three years in prison, one of them in a closed regime, for corruption and influence peddling, becoming the first former French head of state to be sentenced to prison terms in a closed regime. But he immediately appealed the decision, suspending the execution of the sentence.