Carla Bruni “indicted” by the police: what do investigators suspect her of?

Nicolas Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni, was summoned by the police this Thursday to give her testimony on the activities of a friend, indicted in a case linked to Nicolas Sarkozy.

Singer Carla Bruni, unlike her husband, is not used to hearings in a police station, conducted by investigators. However, it is being heard this Thursday, April 2, under the status of “free hearing of accused person” in the premises of the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF), as reported the AFP.

The former first lady is heard by the police officers responsible for investigating the conditions of the retraction of Ziad Takieddine, who had first accused Nicolas Sarkozy of having illegally received money from Libya, before returning to his allegations. The police suspect Ziad Takieddine of having been paid to speak publicly by declaring that he had lied, to clear Nicolas Sarkozy. Payments of money to Ziad Takieddine's entourage and promises of financial donations of several million euros to the person concerned were identified by the investigation. Carla Bruni must provide the information she knows about this affair.

Médiapart, which is at the origin of the revelations on suspicions of Libyan financing in Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign in 2007, writes this Thursday that Carla Bruni is being interviewed specifically "as part of the investigation into the "Save Sarko" operation , media and judicial manipulation" on the sidelines of this affair, "because his name appears at many stages of this story".

Concretely, the judges in charge of the case suspect Carla Bruni of having played a role in the change of heart of Ziad Takieddine, through the intermediary of Michèle Marchand, known as "Mimi Marchand", herself implicated, indicted, in this file, suspected of having edited the Paris Match article in which Mr. Takkiedine declared having lied by attacking Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Central Office for the Fight against Corruption and Financial and Tax Offenses (OCLCIFF) has already heard from Carla Bruni, as a witness last June. She then admitted to being close to “Mimi Marchand”. Mediapart indicates that investigators “also became convinced” that Carla Bruni had “intervened, through one of the police officers responsible for her security, in order to accelerate the obtaining of a PCR test for Michèle Marchand for so that she can go to Beirut. For what ? The investigators' line of work is that she met Ziad Takieddine to discuss these “retractions”.

Nicolas Sarkozy is currently indicted in this case for concealment of witness tampering and criminal association with a view to committing judgment fraud.