Ex-French first lady Carla Bruni summoned for possible indictment in campaign probe: Source
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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife, singer and model, Carla Bruni.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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PARIS - Singer and model Carla Bruni has been summoned for a possible indictment in connection with an investigation into the alleged Libyan financing of her husband Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign, a source told AFP on June 29.
According to the source close to the case, the 56-year-old former first lady is suspected of concealment of witness tampering and involvement in an attempt to bribe Lebanese judicial personnel, among other violations.
Sarkozy, 69, was charged in October 2023
Investigators suspect that several people close to Sarkozy were involved in paying a key witness in that case to retract a statement he made incriminating the former president.
Bruni could be charged or given the status of assisted witness, which under the French legal system, falls short of being formally charged.
The date of the questioning has not been specified.
The singer has already been questioned twice by investigators, first as a witness in June 2023, then as a suspect in early May.
An investigation showed Bruni deleted all messages exchanged with French “paparazzi queen” Michele Marchand on the day Marchand was charged with witness tampering in June 2021.
Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine had claimed several times that he helped deliver up to €5 million in cash from Gaddafi to Sarkozy and his chief of staff in 2006 and 2007.
But in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, raising suspicions that Sarkozy and close allies may have paid the witness to change his mind.
The authorities took an interest in Bruni when Marchand justified her trips to the Sarkozy home as social calls with the singer.
Sarkozy is set to stand trial in 2025 over the allegations that he conspired to take cash from the Libyan leader to illegally fund his subsequently victorious 2007 bid to become French president.
The right-wing politician, who ran France from 2007 to 2012, has faced a litany of legal woes
