Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy by the Paris Judicial Court. Along with the jail term, he has been fined €100,000. Sarkozy, 70, plans to appeal the guilty verdict but will still have to serve his sentence without suspension. The court found him guilty of associating with criminal activities between 2005 and 2007 to finance his presidential campaign using funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors.
The verdict also implicated two of Sarkozy’s closest aides, former ministers Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux, in the criminal association scheme. While found guilty on one charge, Sarkozy was acquitted of other allegations including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing embezzlement of public funds. The court indicated that Sarkozy had allowed his associates to seek financial support from the Libyan regime but did not directly implicate him in organizing the scheme.
During the trial, the former president denied all accusations, maintaining his innocence despite testimonies linking him to the illegal funding. The case stemmed from claims made in 2011 by a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi himself, suggesting that Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign received millions of euros from Libya. A key witness, businessman Ziad Takieddine, initially stated that he had delivered cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry under Sarkozy but later retracted his statement.
The trial shed light on France’s diplomatic engagements with Libya in the 2000s, portraying the country’s transformation from a pariah state under Gadhafi’s rule. Sarkozy dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and based on fabricated evidence, attributing them to a vendetta against him for advocating Gadhafi’s removal during his presidency. He criticized the credibility of the accusations, characterizing them as part of a plot orchestrated by individuals seeking retribution.
Sarkozy’s legal troubles are not limited to this case, as he was previously convicted for corruption and influence peddling related to a separate incident. In another legal battle, he was found guilty of illegal campaign financing during his 2012 re-election bid. Despite these convictions, Sarkozy maintains his innocence and has appealed the verdicts, including the recent ruling, to the highest Court of Cassation.
