French-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine, Nicolas Sarkozy's main accuser in the investigation into the alleged financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by Libya, died Tuesday morning in Beirut, his French lawyer Elise Arfi told AFP, confirming a report from Le Point.

The 75-year-old, known for his fluctuating statements, had repeatedly accused the former head of state of having received funding from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his lieutenants.

Nicolas Sarkozy had in return denounced the comments of this "great manipulator".

The intermediary was the subject of an arrest warrant in this case, in which the Paris Criminal Court is due to deliver its judgment on Thursday.

Ziad Takieddine had already been sentenced in mid-2020 to five years in prison in the financial aspect of the sprawling Karachi affair, a system of kickbacks on French arms contracts with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

The decision was upheld on appeal in early 2025.

He had taken refuge in Lebanon a few days before the first instance judgment.

As early as May 2012, Ziad Takieddine assured the press that the financing of the former French head of state's campaign by Libya was "the truth".

At the end of 2016, he spoke to Mediapart about suitcases of money and five million euros given in 2006 and 2007 to Mr. Sarkozy, then Minister of the Interior, and his chief of staff Claude Guéant.

He then confirmed these comments several times before the investigating judge.

But there was a dramatic turn of events at the end of 2020: the septuagenarian told BFMTV and Paris-Match that the former president had not benefited from this funding.

"Distorted" remarks, Ziad Takieddine corrected two months later, a temporary about-face since analyzed by the courts as possible witness tampering, and which led to the indictment of several personalities, including Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and the celebrity press figure, Mimi Marchand.

Born on June 14, 1950, into a large Lebanese Druze family, he worked in advertising for a long time before leaving his country torn apart by civil war.

In the 1980s, he managed the Isola 2000 mountain resort (Alpes-Maritimes), and gradually established links with many senior right-wing officials.

Thanks to this knowledge and his interpersonal skills, he became involved in the negotiation of defense contracts at the heart of the Karachi affair. He then lived in luxury and showered his political connections with gifts.

But his influence would then decline, between a difficult divorce from his wife, competition from his sworn enemy, businessman Alexandre Djouhri, who came from networks linked to Jacques Chirac, and the beginning of his legal troubles.