Carla Bruni, wife of former French president, put under investigation

French judicial authorities have opened an investigation in Carla Bruni, the wife of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, in connection with alleged election campaign funds from Libya.

The singer has been placed under judicial control, French media reported on Tuesday, citing the judiciary.

The investigations against the 56-year-old centre on possible witness tampering.

The Libya affair centres on allegations that money for Sarkozy's 2007 presidential election campaign came illegally from the regime of the then Libyan ruler Moamer Gaddafi.

The French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine said in 2016 that he had brought several suitcases containing millions of euros - prepared by the Libyan regime - to the Paris Interior Ministry, which was headed by Sarkozy at the time, in late 2006 or early 2007.

He was initially considered to be the main witness. However, he later said in an interview that Sarkozy had not received any Libyan money for the election campaign.

In light of this, the French judiciary launched a further investigation into the Libya affair in 2021 to clarify whether the main witness for the prosecution had been bribed to change his statement.

The judiciary suspects that Takieddine was offered money from the ex-president's circle to change his statement. According to the judiciary, Bruni's role could have been to bring the relevant parties into contact with one other.