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2h ago

Ziad Takieddine, Central Figure in Sarkozy–Libya Case, Dies in Beirut at 75

His death removes a key accuser days before the Paris court’s ruling.

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Ziad Takieddine à son arrivée au procès de l'affaire dite de Karachi, relative à du financement occulte de la vie politique française par rétrocommissions sur des marchés d'armement, au palais de justice de Paris, en octobre 2019. 
L'homme d'affaires franco-libanais Ziad Takieddine à son arrivée au palais de justice de Paris le 7 octobre 2019, au premier jour du procès du volet financier de l'affaire Karachi
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Overview

  • His lawyer, Élise Arfi, confirmed he died Tuesday morning in Beirut at the age of 75.
  • A family source said he had been held for about a month in Tripoli prison in northern Lebanon and died in hospital after a heart attack.
  • He was under a French arrest warrant and absent from the Paris trial that is due to deliver its judgment Thursday on alleged Libyan financing of Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
  • Because of his death, the Paris criminal court is expected to declare the public action against him extinguished while proceedings continue for other defendants.
  • He was the investigation’s most persistent accuser, alleging suitcases of cash and about €5–6 million from Muammar Gaddafi’s circle, briefly retracting those claims in 2020, and he previously received a five‑year sentence in the Karachi affair upheld in early 2025.