The trial of Nicolas Sarkozy in the alleged funding case of his 2007 presidential campaign by Libya entered a decisive phase.
This Thursday, March 27, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) requested a sentence of seven years in prison, with a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of ineligibility against the former French president.
During three days of requisitions, PNF magistrates portrayed a large -scale corruption system, accusing Nicolas Sarkozy of having concluded a “corruption pact” with former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. According to the prosecutor Sébastien de la Touanne, the former head of state is committed, in 2005, in an incessant quest for occult funding to satisfy his political ambitions. The accusation underlines a “high intensity corruption” also involving his close collaborators, including Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, against whom six and three years in prison were required.
Faced with these heavy requisitions, Nicolas Sarkozy reacted firmly. In a message published on social networks, he denounced an unfounded accusation and qualified the claimed penalty of “outrageous”. His lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, also expressed his indignation, denouncing an instruction for the dependent and a manifest desire to condemn the ex-president at all costs.
After ten years of investigation and twelve weeks of hearing, the trial entered its last phase before the verdict of the court. Nicolas Sarkozy, already convicted in other cases, rejects the accusations as a whole and continues to affirm that no Libyan funding has been received for his electoral campaign.
