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Beirut – Lebanese authorities have arrested French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Taqi al-Din, who is considered one of the main witnesses in the case of Libyan financing for the campaign of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, at the request of Interpol, according to a report on Friday. judicial source.
The source said: “The Information Division of the Internal Security Forces has detained Taqi al-Din, based on a telegram received by the discriminatory Interpol Prosecutor, which contains an arrest warrant, as sought by the French authorities” in various cases, including financing of Sarkozy’s campaign.
Taqi al-Din, 70, fled to Beirut after being convicted in Paris in June in the financial part of the Karachi case related to the sale of French arms to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The judiciary concluded that he had played the role of mediator and received huge commissions for “personal enrichment”, and he was sentenced in absentia to five years in prison.
Taqi al-Din played a key role in the past in relations between France and the Muammar Gaddafi regime. He told French investigators since 2016 that between late 2006 and early 2007 he had given Sarkozy and his office manager five million euros to finance the presidential campaign.
However, last month he withdrew his accusations in an interview with the French weekly Paris Match and the BFMTV network.
According to a French judicial source, the Interpol memo is not related to the issue of financing Sarkozy’s campaign, for which he was summoned to court on November 25 as a habitual and unsolicited suspect.
The arrest warrant is likely related to the Karachi case, in which he was tried in absentia and the French judiciary issued an arrest warrant against him.
The Information Branch is questioning Taqi al-Din under the supervision of the Attorney General for Cassation, Judge Ghassan Aouidat. Both will be referred to the Public Prosecutor, who will question him and ask France to provide him with his judicial file.
A leading Lebanese judicial source indicated that he could be released on Monday, provided his passports are confiscated and that he remains under judicial monitoring until his file is received from France. If the charges contained in his file are proven, the judiciary can try him in Lebanon, as a Lebanese citizen, without extraditing him to France.
According to a second French judicial source, the Lebanese authorities must inform the French Ministry of Justice of the implementation of the Interpol memorandum, provided that the ministry informs the Paris Prosecutor’s Office. The latter must send documents supporting the extradition request of Taqi al-Din.
However, given that the two countries have not concluded an agreement to extradite the criminals and “Lebanon does not hand over its nationals, the proceedings can quickly stop there,” according to the same source.
Taqi al-Din was arrested, according to a security source, after “his appearance before the Bureau of Financial Crimes for a case brought against him in Lebanon. Upon requesting his court file, it was found that there was an arrest warrant issued against him by Interpol “.
Taqi al-Din was previously arrested for two weeks between October and November in Lebanon, in the context of a legal dispute with lawyer Hani Murad, who had assigned him to manage his legal affairs after his arrival in Beirut before being fired. .
A human rights source, who declined to be named, said that Taqi al-Din is being prosecuted in several financial cases in Lebanon, on charges of defamation, fraud and forgery, the latest of which is a criminal complaint filed by an associate against him for insulting the trust and fraud regarding a drug that was behind his arrest.
