The intermediary Noël Dubus and the lawyer Gérald Pandelon were indicted on Wednesday, AFP learned on Friday from sources close to the case, in particular for suspicions of fraud in the case of the retraction of Ziad Takieddine, a part of the investigation into possible Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.
Asked by AFP, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) confirmed that the two men had been indicted for fraud in an organized gang, forgery and use of forgery. Me Gérald Pandelon, who would have worked as counsel for Noël Dubus for a time, was recently the subject of a search.
Contacted, Me Laurent Akansel, lawyer for Noël Dubus, did not wish to comment. Me David-Olivier Kaminski recalled that his client Me Gérald Pandelon was “presumed innocent”. Another protagonist of the file, the advertiser Arnaud de la Villesbrune, was also placed in police custody with Noël Dubus and Gérald Pandelon before being released at its end, confirmed the PNF.
Suspected to be one of the organizers of the interview
Noël Dubus, already convicted of fraud, is one of the main protagonists of the investigation opened in May 2021 on suspicion of payments to the intermediary Ziad Takieddine, with the possible endorsement of Nicolas Sarkozy, so that he withdraws his accusations against the former head of state of having received Libyan money to finance his victorious presidential campaign in 2007.
On November 12, 2020, in Paris Match and on BFM, this Lebanese businessman said that “Nicolas Sarkozy did not receive a penny (…) for the 2007 presidential campaign”, when he was until then the main accuser of the former President of the Republic. Noël Dubus is suspected of being one of the organizers of the interview.
This file, investigated in Paris, brought to light a possible attempt at corruption by Lebanese magistrates aimed at freeing one of Gaddafi’s sons, Hannibal, detained in Lebanon. Certain protagonists of the file imagined that his release would make it possible to obtain in exchange of the elements exonerating Nicolas Sarkozy, who disputes any Libyan financing.
Noël Dubus victim of bullying?
In early August 2021, Noël Dubus, 54, filed a complaint for “death threats” and “blackmail” against another protagonist of the case, the financier Pierre Reynaud, his supposed henchman Karim M., as well as the companion alleged Karim M. He said he had obtained mid-May 2021 from Pierre Reynaud “financial assistance of 100,000 euros” to “pay the bail for Hannibal Gaddafi” and have him released.
But Noël Dubus indicated that his arrest in June 2021, along with other people suspected of having tried to return Ziad Takieddine, including Pierre Reynaud or the “queen of the paparazzi” Mimi Marchand, prevented him from completing his mission, d to be paid and therefore to reimburse Pierre Reynaud.
VIDEO. Who is Mimi Marchand, guru of the celebrity press and close to Macron?
The exchanges with the latter would then have turned sour and Karim M. and a woman would have come to “violate” a press officer close to Noël Dubus, Anne T., before coming to threaten him at his home. Pierre Reynaud and Karim M. were indicted in the fall in this section, in particular for “extortion of funds”.
Maurice Lantourne, lawyer for the first, had indicated in the fall that “it is the victim who finds himself prosecuted”, contesting any violence on the part of his client.
