Sarkozy gets God’s punishment - Gaddafi cousin
EGYPT: Muammar Gaddafi’s cousin says the corruption allegations against former French president Nicolas Sarkozy are ‘‘God’s punishment’’ for his role in the Nato-backed uprising that toppled and killed the longtime Libyan leader.
Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, a close aide to Gaddafi based in Cairo, said yesterday he was aware of the millions of euros Gaddafi’s government allegedly gave to Sarkozy.
Investigators are examining allegations that Gaddafi’s regime secretly gave Sarkozy €50 million (NZ$85m) for his successful 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy faces preliminary charges of illegally funding the campaign, passive corruption, and receiving money from Libyan embezzlement. He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Gaddaf al-Dam said Libya wanted France’s support for the creation of a so-called United States of Africa, a dream Gaddafi promoted in public speeches up until 2010. ‘‘We needed a friend in the Elysee,’’ he said. ‘‘Fifty million euros are not too much for Africa.’’
Sarkozy’s support for the government failed to materialise, however, when Libyans took to the streets in early 2011 in an uprising inspired by the Arab Spring.
Gaddafi responded by sending troops and tanks to the eastern city of Benghazi, which had been seized by the rebels, and vowing to hunt them down house by house.
Fearing a massacre, Sarkozy and other Western leaders launched a Nato-led air campaign against Gaddafi’s forces in March that year. The campaign intensified over the next seven months, eventually allowing the rebels to overthrow the government. The rebels later killed Gaddafi.
‘‘Thank God,’’ Gaddaf al-Dam said when asked about Sarkozy’s legal woes. ‘‘This is God’s punishment, because he was the first to start air strikes in Libya.’’
Speaking from his luxurious apartment overlooking the Nile, Gaddaf al-Dam said most of the Libyans involved in the money transfers were in prison, dead or in hiding, fearing assassination.
He listed names mentioned in media reports, such as Gaddafi’s onetime treasurer al-Bashir Saleh, who survived a shooting in South Africa last month, and Shukri Ghanem, the former oil minister, who was found dead in the Danube River in 2012.
Others are being held by Libyan militias, including former prime minister Baghdadi Mahmoudi and former intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi. –