The wife of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been questioned as a suspect in a major investigation.
Authorities are looking into the Libyan financing of her husband's 2007 presidential campaign, AFP reports.
The 56-year-old singer and former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is due to explain her possible role in the spectacular turnaround of French Lebanese mediator Ziad Taqiuddin in late 2020, when he suddenly exonerated Nicolas Sarkozy of any wrongdoing after being his chief accuser in the so-called Libyan funds case.
The courts suspect that several people from the former president's entourage (2007-2012) orchestrated this withdrawal to influence the course of the investigation. Nicolas Sarkozy himself, who denies the facts, was accused in early October of harboring an instigator and conspiracy to commit organised fraud against the court.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, who married Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, was heard as an ordinary witness in June 2023 in this investigation.
According to a source close to the case, the judge is particularly interested in the possibility that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy "tried to cover up" the exchange of information with the "queen of the paparazzi" "Mimi" Marchand, who is also accused in this case.
The model is believed to have deleted all messages exchanged with Marchand on the day of the indictment, June 5, 2021.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy then helped Michelle Marchand and paparazzi Sebastian Valiela to obtain a PCR test in mid-October 2020, which allowed them to travel to Lebanon to conduct the interview that led to Taqiuddin's withdrawal.
Bruni-Sarkozy is being questioned by investigators from the Central Anti-Corruption Office near Paris.
There are now 11 principal actors in this case who are suspected of having been involved at various times and to varying degrees in this operation.
When questioned at the time of the indictment in early October, Nicolas Sarkozy exonerated his wife. "My wife had nothing to do with it," he said. / BGNES
