Moamer Kadhafi’s regime funded French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 election campaign, lawyers for former Libyan prime minister Baghdadi al-Mahmudi said Thursday, quoting their client. “Moamer Kadhafi, his regime and the officials who worked with him financed Sarkozy’s election campaign in 2007,” lawyer Bechir Essed told reporters in Tunis, where Mahmudi is detained, mentioning the sum of some 50 million euros ($65 million). Essed’s claims came after the French Mediapart website published a document on Saturday which it said showed Libya’s financing of Sarkozy’s campaign. Sarkozy has angrily dismissed Mediapart’s document as a deliberate forgery timed to destabilise his re-election campaign and is taking legal action against the website. According to Essed, the deal was concluded by former Libyan intelligence chief Mussa Kussa on the instructions of Kadhafi and that “documents proving the transaction exist.” Another lawyer for Mahmudi, who is facing two demands for extradition to Tripoli, confirmed the claim, adding that his client believes Sarkozy is behind his detention in Tunisia.
