The son of ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has condoned the detention of former French president Nicholas Sarkozy and renewed calls he is willing to provide evidence that Sarkozy was backed by illicit funds.

Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi first mentioned the matter to Euronews in Tripoli in 2011 where he criticised the French justice system for taking seven years to act on the matter.

According to the French judiciary yesterday, Sarkozy was being held in police custody whilst an investigation into allegations he accepted Libyan funding from Gaddafi for his 2007 election campaign.

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The inquiry was first opened by France in 2013 and in January this year the United Kingdom arrested and charged a French businessman suspected of funnelling money from Gaddafi to finance Sarkozy’s campaign.

Saif Al-Islam further added that there were several witnesses willing to testify against Sarkozy, including Abdallah Snoussi, the former director of the Libyan intelligence services, and also Bashir Saleh Bashir, the former CEO of Libya Investment.

Speaking to Africanews, Saif Al-Islam explained how Snoussi has a recording of the first meeting between Sarkozy and Gaddafi held in Tripoli before his 2007 election campaign and added his willingness to testify against Sarkozy after witnessing the delivery of the first portion of the money to Sarkozy’s former chief of staff, Claude Guant, in Tripoli.

Saif Al-Islam branded Sarkozy as a war criminal and responsible for the spread of terrorism and illegal immigration in Libya and urged French President Emmanuel Macron to prosecute him for crimes committed against Libya.

The former leader’s son announced last week that he plans to run in this year’s presidential elections in Libya. He has previously been convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death in 2015 whilst in detention but was released from prison in June last year six years after an uprising in 2011 that ousted and killed his father.