Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will go on trial on Monday charged with receiving millions of euros in illegal financing from Libya’s late strongman Muammar Gaddafi for his successful 2007 presidential bid.
Sarkozy has always denied the accusations.
The conservative former leader faces charges of “concealment of embezzlement of public funds, passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and criminal conspiracy with a view to committing a crime,” the financial prosecutor’s office said.
The trial, which begins at 1:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), will run over three months and risks further undermining public confidence in the French political class.
Investigators allege he made a corrupt pact with the Libyan government. At issue is a murky affair alleged to involve Libyan spies, a convicted terrorist, arms dealers and allegations Gaddafi provided Sarkozy’s campaign with millions of euros shipped to Paris in suitcases.
Sarkozy’s lawyer said the case against the former president was a fabrication and that there had been no Libyan financing of the campaign.
Below are the legal challenges Sarkozy has faced:
LIBYAN CAMPAIGN CASH
Prosecutors have investigated allegations that late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi sent Sarkozy’s successful 2007 campaign millions of euros in cash, allegations that were first made by one of Gaddafi’s sons.
Five months after Sarkozy was elected president, Gaddafi visited him in Paris, on his first state visit to a Western capital in decades. The Libyan leader pitched a Bedouin-style tent near the Elysee Palace.
Later, Sarkozy became one of the chief advocates of the NATO-led campaign against Gaddafi that resulted in the dictator’s overthrow and killing by rebels in 2011.
One of his main accusers, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who has described himself as a “middleman in the shadows”, withdrew his account in 2020.
Sarkozy’s lawyers call the case against him a “fabrication”.
‘WIRETAPPING AFFAIR’
France’s highest court on Dec. 18 upheld a conviction ruling against Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling, ordering him to wear an electronic tag for a year – a first for a former head of state.
Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring to secure a plum job in Monaco for a judge in return for inside information about an inquiry into allegations he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 campaign.
Sarkozy will bring the case to the European Court for Human Rights, his lawyer has said.
Sarkozy’s defence team argue it was illegal to use wiretapped phone conversations made between him and his lawyer – under a false identity – as proof to convict him, and that the judge never got the Monaco job.
An appeal to the European court does not suspend the sentence and Sarkozy will have to wear the electronic tag once a post-sentencing judge has seen him.
‘BYGMALION AFFAIR’
Sarkozy’s conviction of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid was confirmed by an appeals court on Feb. 14, 2024.
He has appealed to the country’s top court, which is expected to rule over the course of 2025.
Sarkozy was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence, half of which suspended. He has always denied accusations that his conservative party, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm named Bygmalion to hide the true cost of his campaign – marked by lavish show events previously unseen in French politics.
During his trial, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team: “I didn’t choose any supplier, I didn’t sign any quotation, any invoice,” he told the court.
France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors said Sarkozy spent 42.8 million euros ($45.9 million) on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount.
RUSSIA
Financial prosecutors in early 2021 opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence-peddling related to activities undertaken by Sarkozy in Russia seven years after he left office.
Source: Reuters
