Sarkozy affair: Saïf al-Islam Gaddafi breaks his silence and claims to have handed over 5 million dollars

In an exclusive exchange with RFI, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the former Libyan leader, reaffirms his accusations concerning the alleged financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. For the first time since 2011, he details his version of the facts as the trial has just opened in Paris.

Gaddafi’s son claims that a total of 5 million dollars was paid in cash to the Sarkozy clan: 2.5 million to finance the electoral campaign and 2.5 million in return for promises concerning the affair of the attack on UTA. He claims to have personally supervised the transmission of funds to Claude Guéant, then Sarkozy’s chief of staff, via Béchir Saleh and Alexandre Djouhri.

He also reveals that he was pressured on three occasions between 2021 and 2022 to change his testimony, with the proposed return being help to close his case at the International Criminal Court. Since his release in 2017, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi has lived in Zentan and travels to southern Libya where he benefits from the support of the tribes. Still under an ICC arrest warrant for war crimes, he has several times expressed his desire to run in the presidential election in Libya, a vote which has never taken place since the fall of the regime. .

Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer, Me Ingrain, denounces “fanciful” and “opportunistic” accusations, recalling that no convincing document has ever been provided to French justice despite the promises of Libyan dignitaries. In this interview granted to RFI through a trusted person, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi refused any direct telephone contact to avoid being located. This is the first time he has spoken in the media on this affair since 2011.