Sarkozy ‘got 50 m euros from Qaddafi’

France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy took more than 50 million euros from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, a French judge has been told, a report yesterday revealed.
Lebanese-born businessman, Ziad Takieddine told an investigative judge that he has “written proof” that transfers from Qaddafi and one of his sons to Sarkozy exceeded 50 million euros in illegal payments, British newspaper the Independent reported. The transfers helped prop up Sarkozy’s first presidential campaign in 2006-7, which was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli and continued until just before the downfall of the Libyan regime, which was partly pushed by French and British airstrikes in 2011, according to Al Arabia News.
Takieddine, who is at the center of the latest claims, “has been a fixer for legal — and allegedly illegal — dealings between France and the Middle East for 20 years,” reported the Independent.