Sarkozy: Former French president on trial over alleged Gaddafi financing
Former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial today over allegations he received €50m (£41.53) funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy served as a one-term president of France from 2007 to 2012, before being defeated by François Hollande in the 2012 election.
The former leader of Les Républicains has been accused of illegally accepted money from the former Libyan dictator before he was assassinated in 2011.
The scandal was revealed following an investigation by media outlet Mediapart which saw it publish a document in 2012 suggesting that Gaddafi agreed to give Sarkozy up to €50m for his presidential campaign.
After a decade long investigation by the French authorities, Sarkozy now faces criminal charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzlement of public funds and criminal association.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
According to The Times, his lawyer Christophe Ingrain said the former French leader “will fight the artificial construction dreamt up by the prosecution. There was no Libyan financing”.
The trial kicks off at a Paris court on Monday and is scheduled to run until 10 April, with a verdict expected at a later date.
Along with Sarkozy, there are 11 other defendants, including three former ministers.
The former French president is already wearing an ankle monitor after he was placed under house arrest in a separate case by the French Supreme Court last month.
The top French court upheld a decision that found him guilty of corruption, as according to Politico, he was found guilty of having offered a judge a plum job in exchange for confidential information related to another trial he was facing.
The judge, Gilbert Azibert, and Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog were also sentenced.
While in another legal case last year, Sarkozy was sentenced to six months in prison with six months suspended over alleged overspending during his 2012 reelection campaign. This case is being appealed to the French Supreme Court, which is expected to rule this year.
Sarkozy claims innocence in all the legal cases he faces.