Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is back in a French court, facing charges of illegally receiving funds from the regime of the late Muammar Gaddafi in Libya.
Twelve other individuals are also charged in the same case, including three former ministers from Sarkozy’s government (Brice Hortefeux, Claude Guéant, and Eric Woerth), as well as former officials from Gaddafi’s regime. The trial, which is taking place in the presence of Sarkozy, is expected to conclude next April.
The 69-year-old former president is specifically accused of corruption, embezzlement of public funds, illegal campaign financing, and forming a criminal organization. He is facing a potential sentence of 10 years in prison, a ban on his political rights, and a financial fine.
Sarkozy himself has labeled the entire case as a “myth,” and his supporters portray him as a “fighter” who is “determined” to prove his innocence.
According to the indictment, in 2005 – when Sarkozy was a minister in Jacques Chirac’s government – he met with Gaddafi during an official visit to Libya. At the time, Gaddafi was seeking to break free from international diplomatic isolation, and Sarkozy allegedly promised him that France would assist if he succeeded in winning the 2007 presidential elections. Sarkozy is said to have asked Gaddafi to finance his election campaign with an amount currently estimated at around 50 million euros.
The existence of a secret agreement between Sarkozy and Gaddafi has been confirmed on several occasions by Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, as well as other Libyan officials. The French judiciary began investigating the case in 2012, shortly after Sarkozy’s presidential term ended, and about a year after Gaddafi was killed in 2011.
The 555-page indictment provides detailed accounts of the significant difficulties faced by investigators in handling the case, which is considered extraordinarily complex and rife with “gray areas.”
This is the fifth time Sarkozy has faced the French judiciary since the end of his presidency in 2012. He is also the only former French president to have been convicted in a corruption case.
