Iskandar Safa

Iskandar Safa and his brother Akram Safa (Beirut, 1952) are French businessmen of Lebanese origin who come from a Maronite Christian family. They became famous during the Lebanese hostage crisis in 1987–88 for suspected involvement in financial transactions associated with a suspected ransom paid to obtain the hostages' liberation.[1]

They were the directors of Triacorps, and also worked with the Sofremi. They are the owner of the CMN (Construction mécaniques de Normandie),[2] through which they were suspected of providing illegal funding to Jean-Charles Marchiani, the former second-hand man of former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua. Iskandar Safa is also managing director of Abu Dhabi MAR, a holding company that owns CMN among other shipyards.[3]

They have also been indicted for the suspected buying of a friendly article published in 2005 in Le Point, titled "Un PDG interdit de séjour".[4]

The cases were dropped in 2009 by the French prosecutors for lack of evidence.

References

  1. ↑ Iskandar Safa and the French Hostage Scandal, Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, vol. 4 n°2, February 2002 (English)
  2. ↑ "Des "scoops" sur écoute", Libération, 8 May 2007 (French)
  3. ↑ http://www.abudhabimargroup.com/home/news.html
  4. ↑ Franz-Olivier Giesbert entendu par la police au sujet de l'achat d'un article complaisant par un milliardaire Le Monde 12.04.07.