Wednesday, July 10, 2024 - Former French first lady and supermodel, Carla Bruni has been charged with corruption offences.
The 56-year-old is alleged to have been
involved in a criminal conspiracy to 'whitewash' her husband, former President
Nicolas Sarkozy, 69, over allegations that he accepted millions in cash from
the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi.
After being questioned by examining magistrates on Tuesday evening, a
judicial source in Paris said she was being prosecuted July 9, about 'witness
tampering and fraud in an organised gang'.
Both extremely serious offences are
punishable by up to 10 years, with sentences going up to 20 with aggravating
circumstances such as gang membership.
In particular, Bruni is accused of being part of a £4million campaign dubbed
'Operation Save Sarko' – a complex and illegal plan to try and keep Sarkozy,
who is already a convicted criminal, out of a jail cell.
Bruni was 'placed under judicial
supervision and banned from contacting all those involved in the case' apart
from her husband, the source told the AFP news agency.
The bail conditions will be in place right
up until Bruni appears before in a criminal trial.
Bruni is a close friend of Mimi Marchand, a French media fixer who has been
placed under formal investigation for 'witness tampering' and 'criminal
corruption' in the same case.
Marchand, 77 and nicknamed 'The Paparazzi
Queen', is accused of paying former French-Lebanese arms dealer Ziad
Takieddine, 74, to drop a sworn testament that he arranged for millions of
dollars from Colonel Gaddafi to be paid to Sarkozy.
During an interview which was published in Paris Match magazine four years ago, Takieddine withdrew his claim that suitcases stuffed with cash had been delivered to Sarkozy's colleagues.
The money was used to fund the 2007 election campaign that saw Sarkozy win his
one and only term in office as President of France, it was alleged.
Sarkozy used the 2020 interview to falsely
claim that he had been cleared because 'the truth is out'.
But Marchand, who also denies any
wrongdoing is said by prosecutors to have offered Takieddine inducements to
change his story.
The case involving Bruni is dubbed
'Operation Save Sarko', and is running in tandem with the Libyan funding case,
in which Sarkozy has already been indicted.
Takieddine is said to have received the
equivalent of up to £4million to 'change his story,' according to prosecution
claims.
Bruni has continually denied any involvement
in 'Operation Save Sarko,' saying she tries to avoid legal cases involving her
husband, who has two criminal convictions to date.
She has previously said: 'When people talk to me about it, it puts me in a
situation of anger and indignation which does not help my husband.'
Bruni added: 'I don't have the beginnings of the slightest curiosity about my
husband's affairs.'
But detectives claim that Bruni deleted all of the messages she had exchanged
with Marchand on the encrypted Signal app, before Marchand's indictment in June
2021.
Sarkozy has been charged with corruption, 'illicit funding of an election
campaign', 'receiving misappropriated public funds', and 'criminal conspiracy'
in relation to the Gaddafi scandal, and is due to go on trial next year.
Three of his former ministers, Brice
Hortefeux, Claude Guéant, and Éric Woerth are also under investigation.
In January, Sarkozy failed to overturn a
criminal conviction and prison sentence for illegally funding his campaign for
re-election.
He was found guilty of fiddling the books
during his unsuccessful 2012 bid to become head of state.
Sarkozy, who was President of France for five years up until 2012,
served his sentence wearing an electronic tag at the Paris home he shares with
Bruni.
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