Former President Nicolas Sarkozy in court in Libya affair

France

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy in court in Libya affair

Millions are said to have flowed from the then Libyan ruler Gaddafi to the election campaign of France’s ex-President Sarkozy. A trial against Sarkozy and twelve co-defendants is now beginning.

France’s ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy will be in court from Monday (1:30 p.m.) in the affair surrounding alleged campaign funds from Libya. The Libya affair revolves around evidence that millions were illegally funneled from the regime of then Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi to Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. The conservative, who was French President from 2007 to 2012, had always rejected the allegations.

In addition to Sarkozy, twelve other defendants are on trial in Paris on charges of illegal campaign financing, embezzlement of public funds and bribery. The co-defendants include former Interior Ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux as well as former Labor Minister and MP Éric Woerth.

The indictment is based, among other things, on information from the French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who stated that in late 2006 or early 2007 he had brought several suitcases containing several million euros – prepared by the Libyan regime – to the Paris Interior Ministry, which was then headed by Sarkozy . Sarkozy then accused him of lying. Takieddine’s statements have fluctuated several times over the course of the investigation and he is on the run following a conviction in a separate matter.

In return for the alleged payment of millions, Libya, which was ostracized at the time, was said to have been promised good business with French companies and help with its return to the international stage. Indeed, in December 2007, Muammar Gaddafi was received with military honors at the Elysée Palace.

Efforts to revoke a French arrest warrant against Gaddafi’s brother-in-law Abdallah Senoussi are also said to have been announced. He was found guilty in absentia in Paris in 1999 as being primarily responsible for an attack on a French airliner in which 170 people died. The former ministers and co-defendants Guéant and Hortefeux are said to have met Senoussi in Libya in 2005 – according to French media reports, in order to arrange the million-dollar aid.

If found guilty, Sarkozy could face up to ten years in prison and a heavy fine. Several of the co-defendants also face up to ten years in prison. The trial with 40 days of negotiations is scheduled until April 10th. For the extensive investigations into the Libya affair, which began at the beginning of 2013, France submitted requests for legal assistance to 21 countries, including Germany. The investigations fill 73 trial files.

Sarkozy (69) has already been in court for various affairs. In mid-December, a final guilty verdict was handed down against the ex-president in a case involving influence over the judiciary. For bribery and illicit influence peddling, Sarkozy was sentenced to serve a year in prison with an ankle bracelet at home. The modalities will be determined in the next few weeks, and Sarkozy has not yet had the ankle bracelet put on.