French prosecutor sentences Sarkozy to seven years in Libya campaign financing trial
PARIS (AP) – French prosecutors on Thursday demanded a seven-year prison sentence and a fine of 300,000 euros (about $325,000) against former President Nicolas Sarkozy, in line with the allegation that his 2007 presidential campaign was illegally funded by former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The National Financial Attorney’s Office, known for its French acronym PNF, also called for a ban on Sarkozy’s citizen, citizen and family rights, a measure that prevented him from taking an elected position or taking any public judicial role.
The case, which opened in January and is expected to end on April 10, is considered the worst of several legal scandals during the late period of Sarkozy.
The 70-year-old Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, faces allegations of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealing public funds and criminal associations. He denied any misconduct.
The allegations date back to 2011, when Libya News Agency and Ghatfi himself said that Libya had secretly put millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In 2012, French investigative media Mediapart published what it called a Libyan intelligence memorandum, referring to a €50 million funding agreement. Sarkozy condemned the document as forged and sued for defamation.
The French magistrate later said that the memorandum seemed to be true, although there was no certain evidence of the completion of the transaction.
Investigators also looked at a series of trips to Libya by Sarkozy’s colleagues between 2005 and 2007.
In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that he had delivered a suitcase with cash from the French Ministry of Interior led by Sarkozy. He later withdrew his statement. Now, this reversal is the focus of a separate investigation into possible witness tampering.
Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, were under preliminary investigation in this case.
Sarkozy’s former ministers Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Erric Woerth were also on trial along with eight other defendants. But prosecutors have made it clear that the core figure is the former president himself – accused of consciously benefiting from the “corruption agreement” of foreign dictatorship while running to lead the French Republic.
Although Sarkozy has been convicted in two other criminal cases, the incident in Libya is widely regarded as the most politically explosive and most likely to shape his legacy.
In December 2024, France’s Supreme Court upheld his conviction for corruption and influenced driving and sentenced him to one year of arrest for houses with an electronic bracelet. The case stems from a wiretap phone discovered during the Libyan investigation. In another ruling in February 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that he had committed illegal campaign financing in his failed campaign in 2012.
Sarkozy dismissed Libya’s allegations as politically motivated and rooted in fake evidence. But if convicted, he would become the first former president to be considered to have won the post by accepting illegal foreign funds.
A verdict is expected to be made later this year.
