Former French President Sarkozy Faces Trial Over Alleged €50 Million Gaddafi Campaign Financing

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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Monday, facing charges of accepting €50 million in illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The case, a result of over a decade of investigations, adds to a series of legal troubles shadowing Sarkozy since leaving office in 2012. 

The 69-year-old politician, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, is accused of concealing embezzlement of public funds and illegal campaign financing. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison. Sarkozy has denied all allegations, calling them part of a conspiracy against him. 

Prosecutors allege that Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign was financed with funds illicitly provided by Gaddafi’s regime. In return, Sarkozy and senior officials purportedly pledged to rehabilitate Gaddafi’s international image, despite Libya’s ties to the 1988 Pan Am Flight 103 bombing over Lockerbie and other attacks. 

The case gained momentum in 2012 when investigative outlet Mediapart published a document alleging an agreement between Sarkozy and Libyan officials. Sarkozy, however, has insisted the document is a forgery. 

The accusations intensified after Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine claimed he delivered up to €5 million in cash from Gaddafi to Sarkozy’s campaign in 2006 and 2007. Takieddine later retracted his statement in 2020, fueling suspicions of witness tampering. 

Sarkozy has already been convicted in two separate cases. In December 2023, France’s top appeals court upheld a one-year prison sentence for influence peddling, which Sarkozy is serving under electronic surveillance. Another campaign financing conviction was confirmed by a Paris appeals court last year. 

Sarkozy and the late Libyan leader, Gaddafi

In October 2023, Sarkozy was also charged with illegal witness tampering, while his wife, Carla Bruni, was charged with concealing evidence in the same case. 

The trial, scheduled to run until April 10, includes 12 other defendants, among them Sarkozy’s former chief of staff Claude Guéant, campaign financing head Eric Woerth, and ex-minister Brice Hortefeux. 

Defense attorneys have dismissed the allegations as unsubstantiated. “There was no Libyan financing of the campaign,” said Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain. 

Prosecutors argue the alleged pact dates back to a 2005 meeting between Sarkozy, then interior minister, and Gaddafi in Tripoli. However, Sarkozy’s defense maintains no evidence of illegal funds was ever found in the campaign accounts. 

The alleged campaign financing ties are set against a backdrop of Western countries’ attempts to re-engage with Gaddafi in the mid-2000s. Gaddafi visited Paris in 2007, pitching his tent in the city center during a highly publicized state visit. 

However, relations soured by 2011 when France backed NATO-led military action that helped oust Gaddafi during Libya’s civil war. Sarkozy has since claimed the accusations stem from personal vendettas among former Gaddafi officials. 

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