While Sarkozy continuously dismisses allegations, calling them ‘politically motivated and rooted in forged evidence’, if he gets convicted, he would become the first former French president found guilty of accepting illegal foreign funds to win office.
French prosecutors on Thursday requested a seven-year prison sentence and a 300,000-euro (around USD 325,000) fine for former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who faces allegations that his 2007 presidential campaign was financed illegally by former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s government. France’s National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, which is also known as PNF, sought a five-year ban on Sarkozy’s civic, civil and family rights – a measure that would prohibit him from holding elected office or serving in any public judicial role.
What are the charges on Sarkozy?
Sarkozy, 70, who remained French president between 2007 and 2012, is accused of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzlement of public funds and criminal association. However, he has denied any wrongdoing.
The case, which opened in January and is expected to conclude on April 10, is considered the most serious of the multiple legal scandals that have clouded Sarkozy’s post-presidency.
Gadhafi’s shocking claim regarding Sarkozy’s campaign funding
The accusations against Sarkozy date back to 2011, when Gadhafi himself, along with a Libyan news agency, claimed that the Libyan state had secretly funnelled millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In 2012, the French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it said was a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as a forgery and sued for defamation.
Sarkozy, who has already been convicted in two separate criminal cases, is claimed to have received suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli through his interior ministry.
France’s highest court upheld Sarkozy’s conviction in 2024
In December 2024, France’s highest court upheld his conviction for corruption and influence peddling, sentencing him to one year of house arrest with an electronic bracelet. That case stemmed from tapped phone calls uncovered during the Libya investigation.
In a separate ruling in February 2024, a Paris appeals court found him guilty of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid.
Sarkozy has dismissed the Libya allegations as politically motivated and rooted in forged evidence. But if convicted, he would become the first former French president found guilty of accepting illegal foreign funds to win office.