PARIS A former aide to Nicolas Sarkozy has been charged as part of an inquiry into allegations that Libyan funds helped finance the French ex-president’s 2007 election campaign, a judicial source said on Monday.
Thierry Gaubert, 68, was charged on Friday with taking hundreds of thousands of euros from the government of Moamer Khadafi that may have been funnelled to Sarkozy’s campaign, the source said.
Allegations that the campaign received up to €50 million ($53.3 million at current rates) from Libya first emerged during Sarkozy’s failed 2012 re-election bid.
Sarkozy helped to remove Qaddafi from power when France and Britain led a NATO-backed military offensive in 2011.
Gaubert worked for Sarkozy when the future president was budget minister in the mid-1990s.
He is suspected of accepting a transfer of €440,000 in February 2006 from Rossfield, a company of Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine — another figure who has been charged in the affair.
The investigative news site Mediapart reported in December that Rossfield took €6 million from Libya in 2006.
Gaubert, as well as his ex-wife, are also on trial for tax fraud and money laundering over Rossfield funds allegedly routed through the Bahamas in 2006.
Gaubert has said the money had no links to Libya.
Sarkozy was charged in 2018 with taking bribes, concealing the embezzlement of Libyan public funds and illegal campaign financing.
He denies the allegations, claiming that an explosive Libyan document presented by Mediapart as proof of the corruption is a fake.
France charges Sarkozy aide in Libya funding probe
https://arab.news/cp5h8
France charges Sarkozy aide in Libya funding probe
- Thierry Gaubert, 68, was charged with taking hundreds of thousands of euros from the government of Moamer Khadafi
- Sarkozy helped to remove Qaddafi from power when France and Britain led a NATO-backed military offensive in 2011
Julio Iglesias calls sexual abuse allegations against him ‘absolutely untrue’
- “I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness,” Iglesias said
- A Spanish high court received formal allegations against Iglesias on Jan. 5, officials said
MADRID: Grammy-winning singer Julio Iglesias on Friday denied allegations that he sexually assaulted two former employees, calling the accusations “absolutely untrue.”
Media reports from earlier this week alleged Iglesias had sexually and physically assaulted two women who worked at his residences in the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas between January and October 2021. A day later, Spanish prosecutors said they were studying the allegations.
“With deep sorrow, I respond to the accusations made by two people who previously worked at my home. I deny having abused, coerced or disrespected any woman. These accusations are absolutely false and cause me great sadness,” Iglesias said on Instagram.
Spanish news outlet elDiario.es and US television network Univision Noticias published the joint, three-year investigation on Jan. 13 into Iglesias’ alleged misconduct.
A Spanish high court received formal allegations against Iglesias on Jan. 5, officials said. Iglesias could potentially be taken in front of the Madrid-based court, which can try alleged crimes by Spanish citizens while they are abroad, according to its press office.
A rights group representing the two women said they were accusing Iglesias of “crimes against sexual freedom and indemnity such as sexual harassment” and of “human trafficking for the purpose of forced labor and servitude.” Women’s Link Worldwide said the two women had presented the complaint to the Spanish court.
The 82-year-old is one of the world’s most successful musical artists, having sold more than 300 million records in more than a dozen languages. After making his start in Spain, Iglesias won immense popularity in the US and wider world in the 1970s and 1980s. He is the father of pop singer Enrique Iglesias.
In 1988, he won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for his album “Un Hombre Solo.” He also received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys in 2019.
“I had never experienced such malice, but I still have the strength for people to know the full truth and to defend my dignity against such a serious affront,” Iglesias wrote on social media.
He thanked those who had sent messages of support.
