The former French president and 12 other people, including three former ministers, are on trial starting this Monday in the case of “Libyan financing” of his 2007 presidential campaign.
The beginnings of the affair
Shortly before the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, his son Saif al-Islam says, in an interview with Euronewshave evidence of the existence of payments from the Gaddafi regime to the presidential campaign of the right-wing candidate in 2007.
“I myself witnessed the delivery of the first tranche of money to Claude Guéant in Tripoli”he declares.
What is Nicolas Sarkozy accused of?
Nicolas Sarkozy is on trial for “illegal campaign financing”, “concealment of embezzlement of public funds”, “passive corruption” And “criminal association”.
He is accused of having established a relationship with Gaddafi “corruption pact”, for him to finance his victorious 2007 campaign in particular in exchange for diplomatic compensation, such as the rehabilitation of Gaddafi on the international scene and trying to cancel a French arrest warrant against the head of the Libyan intelligence services Abdallah Senoussi.
The latter is considered responsible for the bomb attack against the plane of the French company UTA, which left 170 dead, above the Nigerien desert in 1989.
What does he risk?
Back in court, the former president faces a sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros. This is his fifth trial and he will appear for the first time with a criminal record. Which could weigh against him in this affair.
Several ongoing investigations
Permanently sentenced to one year under an electronic bracelet for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping affair, also said “Bismuth”Nicolas Sarkozy was also convicted on appeal in February 2024, for excessive spending during his lost 2012 campaign, in the case “Bygmalion”.
In October 2023, he was also indicted in the investigation into possible fraudulent maneuvers to obtain the withdrawalin 2020, accusations from intermediary Ziad Takkieddine in the affair over the financing of his 2007 campaign.
His consulting activities in Russia are also the subject of a preliminary investigation by the national financial prosecutor’s office, as is his dinner in 2010 with senior Qatari leaders and Michel Platini (former head of FIFA) which could have led to the Controversial attribution of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Who are the other protagonists in this affair?
Ziad Takieddine
A few months after the publication of a Mediapart note claiming, in 2006, that Tripoli would have paid 50 million euros for Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign, the Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine claimed, in December 2012, to hold evidence of this Libyan financing.
On the run in Lebanon, he recanted in 2020, before confirming his accusations in 2021.
Claude Guéant
The former secretary general of the Élysée is judged for having been an intermediary to obtain these Libyan funds via the networks of Ziad Takieddine and Alexandre Djouhri.
In 2008, after the presidential election, he received a transfer of 500,000 euros, which he claims came from the sale of paintings to a Malaysian lawyer, also implicated in this affair, but whose death the courts learned of.
ADVERTISEMENTTwo days before the transfer, the lawyer had received 500,000 euros from a Saudi businessman, close to Alexandre Djouhri, who reimbursed him this sum.
Alexandre Djouhri
A 66-year-old Franco-Algerian intermediary, a former delinquent from Val-d’Oise who became a businessman.
Close to Chiraquia and the Françafrique networks, he is accused of having benefited from embezzled Libyan public funds.
ADVERTISEMENTBrice Hortefeux
The former Minister of the Interior also allegedly acted as an intermediary and transferred funds via offshore accounts.
Eric Woerth
Former Minister of Labor and Budget under Sarkozy, he was the treasurer of the 2007 campaign.
ADVERTISEMENTIndicted for “complicity in illegal campaign financing”, he admits to having received anonymous cash donations during the presidential campaign, which he redistributed to his teams.
How long will the trial last?
The trial which opens this Monday January 6 before the Paris criminal court must be held until April 10.
