France’s former first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, has been charged in connection with a 2007 election funding scandal involving cash from then Libyan dictator, Col Muammar Gaddafi. French media reports that Bruni-Sarkozy, 56, faces charges of hiding evidence and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud. She has been placed under judicial control and is prohibited from contacting other accused individuals except her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy. Additionally, she is suspected of concealing witness tampering and attempting to bribe Lebanese judicial personnel, among other violations.
Bruni-Sarkozy’s lawyers told AFP that she is determined to challenge what they describe as an “unfounded decision.”
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, is scheduled to go on trial next year over allegations that he received money from Gaddafi to fund his successful election campaign. He faces charges of corruption, illegal campaign financing, benefiting from embezzled public funds, and membership in a criminal conspiracy, all of which he denies.
The investigation began in 2013, two years after Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, accused Sarkozy of accepting millions of euros from his father for campaign funding. In 2014, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine supported these claims, stating he had proof of Tripoli’s financial support for Sarkozy’s campaign, amounting to €50 million (£43 million). Takieddine claimed that he personally delivered suitcases filled with cash to Sarkozy and his chief of staff, Claude Guéant. Although Takieddine retracted this statement in 2020, raising suspicions of bribery, Guéant denied the allegations.
In June, Bruni-Sarkozy was found to have deleted messages exchanged with a French businesswoman questioned by police over witness tampering accusations. Since his defeat in the 2012 presidential election, Sarkozy has faced multiple criminal investigations. In 2023, he received a suspended prison sentence for attempting to bribe a judge, and earlier this year, he was found guilty of illegally funding his 2012 re-election campaign.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, an Italian-born former supermodel and singer, married Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, and they have a daughter, Giulia, born in 2011.
Picture Courtesy: Google/images are subject to copyright
