A businessman wanted in France over claims that the Qaddafi family secretly bankrolled Nicolas Sarkozy bribed one of the ex-president’s senior officials to secure a commission on a Libyan aircraft deal, a London court heard.
Alexandre Djouhri, 59, sold a villa in the south of France for a vastly inflated price and funnelled some of the money into an account held by Claude Gueant, Mr Sarkozy’s former chief of staff, and his wife, French authorities claim.
French investigators believe the 500,000-euro payment came from a state-run Libyan fund which bought the villa in 2008 with an unsustainable plan to turn it into a medical centre for retired African leaders, said Ben Watson, a lawyer for the government.
France launched an inquiry four years later into reports that the Qaddafi family paid $50 million to help Mr Sarkozy fight his successful 2007 presidential election campaign in contravention of French election laws.
Mr Djouhri – who was described in court as a go-between for the French leadership and the Qaddafi regime – is wanted in France for fraud, money laundering and bribery in connection with the villa sale.
The French-Algerian businessman was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport in January last year on a French-issued arrest warrant. The Swiss resident had been living in Geneva out of reach of French investigators and had declined opportunities to speak with investigators, the court heard.
Details of the payments emerged at the start of a three-day extradition hearing delayed after the prominent political fixer collapsed in a British prison with serious heart problems and required emergency medical treatment.
Mr Djouhri is fighting extradition, claiming that the case against him is politically-motivated because of his association with Mr Sarkozy. The former president was one of the leading advocates of a Nato-led military campaign that resulted in the overthrow and killing of Muammar Qaddafi in 2011.
Mr Sarkozy has said the claims of illegal Libyan funding of his campaign were made in revenge for his backing of the rebels – and led to the failure of his 2012 re-election bid.
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Read more:
Sarkozy probe businessman faces 2019 extradition battle
French-Algerian fixer linked to Sarkozy probe on £2m bail
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Mr Djouhri rose to prominence after acting as an attempted peacemaker between Mr Qaddafi and the rebels attacking the regime’s hold on Tripoli. He claimed that he was being targeted by a judiciary biased against Mr Sarkozy.
“It’s a fake arrest,” Mr Djouhri told The National before the start of Monday’s hearing. “It’s harassment.”
Mr Djouhri allegedly paid the money to Mr Gueant ensure he received a commission on the sale of Airbus aircraft to state-owned Libyan airline Afriqiyah Airways, said Mr Watson. He also wanted to ensure that he avoided tax liabilities from the villa sale, he said.
Mr Watson said there was no direct evidence linking the proceeds from the villa sale to the election funding scandal.
French investigators say that Mr Gueant later falsely claimed that the money came from the sale of two paintings rather than the villa. Days after receiving the payment, the money was used to buy an apartment in the French capital.
Mr Watson told the hearing in London that the villa was valued in 1998 at some 760,000 euros but was sold a decade later to the Libyan African Investment Portfolio (LAP) for more than 10 million euros.
Mr Djouhri’s legal team says he is not well enough to stand trial and is bringing evidence from senior French officials to claim the judiciary has unfairly targeted Mr Sarkozy and his allies.
“Mr Djouhri is seen as a close associate of Mr Sarkozy and go between … with the Qaddafi family,” said Jonathan Caplan QC, for Mr Djouhri.
The hearing continues
From Conquest to Deportation
Jeronim Perovic, Hurst
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SPECS
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The%20specs
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SQUADS
Bangladesh (from): Shadman Islam, Mominul Haque, Soumya Sarkar, Shakib Al Hasan (capt), Mahmudullah Riyad, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Liton Das, Taijul Islam, Mosaddek Hossain, Nayeem Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadat Hossain, Abu Jayed
Afghanistan (from): Rashid Khan (capt), Ihsanullah Janat, Javid Ahmadi, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Asghar Afghan, Ikram Alikhil, Mohammad Nabi, Qais Ahmad, Sayed Ahmad Shirzad, Yamin Ahmadzai, Zahir Khan Pakteen, Afsar Zazai, Shapoor Zadran
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
Company%C2%A0profile
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The biog
Name: Sarah Al Senaani
Age: 35
Martial status: Married with three children - aged 8, 6 and 2
Education: Masters of arts in cultural communication and tourism
Favourite movie: Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
Favourite hobbies: Art and horseback ridding
Occupation: Communication specialist at a government agency and the owner of Atelier
Favourite cuisine: Definitely Emirati - harees is my favourite dish
<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html" charset="UTF-8" /></head><body><!--PSTYLE=* Labels%3aFH Label 18 Sport--><p>Beach soccer</p><!--PSTYLE=BY Byline--><p>Amith Passela</p><p /></body></html>
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Results
6.30pm: Mazrat Al Ruwayah Group Two (PA) US$55,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: Rasi, Harry Bentley (jockey), Sulaiman Al Ghunaimi (trainer).
7.05pm: Meydan Trophy (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,900m; Winner: Ya Hayati, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Bochart, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.
8.15pm: Balanchine Group Two (TB) $250,000 (T) 1,800m; Winner: Magic Lily, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,000m; Winner: Waady, Jim Crowley, Doug Watson.
9.25pm: Firebreak Stakes Group Three (TB) $200,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Capezzano, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
10pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 2,410m; Winner: Eynhallow, Mickael Barzalona, Charlie Appleby.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'
Rating: 1 out of 4
Running time: 81 minutes
Director: David Blue Garcia
Starring: Sarah Yarkin, Elsie Fisher, Mark Burnham
