Nicolas Sarkozy found guilty on key charge in Libya financing case

A Paris court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty on a key charge in the Libya campaign financing case, acquitting him of three other counts. The verdict, read Thursday, leaves the 70-year-old politician facing a possible prison term, with sentencing to follow later in the court proceedings. He can appeal the conviction, which would suspend any sentence pending appeal.

The court convicted Sarkozy of criminal association in a scheme dating from 2005 to 2007 to obtain funding for his 2007 campaign from the Libyan government of Moammar Gadhafi, in exchange for diplomatic favors. He was acquitted on three other charges — including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of the embezzlement of public funds. Two of Sarkozy’s closest aides when he was president, former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, were found guilty of criminal association as well but likewise acquitted of some other charges. Overall, the ruling suggested the court believed the men conspired to seek Libyan funding for Sarkozy’s campaign but that judges weren’t convinced Sarkozy was directly involved in the funding effort or that any Libyan money ended up being used in his 2007 bid. The chief judge, in an hours-long reading of the verdict, said Sarkozy allowed his close associates to reach out to Libyan authorities to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing. But the court also said it couldn’t determine with certainty that Libyan money ended up financing Sarkozy’s campaign. Still, under French law, a corrupt scheme can still be a crime even if money wasn’t paid or cannot be proven, the court explained.

Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom, which was crowded with reporters and members of the public. He sat in the front row of the defendant’s seats, and his three adult sons were in attendance. Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost his bid for reelection in 2012, has denied all wrongdoing and argued the charges are politically motivated.

The accusations trace their roots to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi himself said the Libyan state had secretly funneled millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. In 2012, the 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. The court on Thursday said it now appears most likely that the document is a forgery. Investigators also examined a series of trips to Libya made by people close to Sarkozy during his time as interior minister (2005–2007), including his chief of staff. In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine publicly claimed he delivered suitcases of cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry, later retracting the statements; that reversal is now the focus of a separate witness-tampering investigation. Both Sarkozy and his wife faced preliminary charges related to pressure on Takieddine, a case not yet before a court.

Prosecutors alleged Sarkozy benefited from a “corruption pact” with Gadhafi’s government. Libya’s longtime dictator was toppled and killed in 2011, ending his four-decade rule. Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and reliant on forged evidence, arguing that the charges are part of a broader vendetta tied to his push for intervention in Libya in 2011.

In June, Sarkozy was stripped of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, after a separate conviction for corruption and influence peddling in a different case. He was previously found guilty of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid and was sentenced to a one-year prison term, with six months suspended. He has appealed that verdict to France’s Court of Cassation. The current Libya verdict comes as Sarkozy remains an influential figure in French right‑wing politics and in entertainment circles through his wife Bruni-Sarkozy.

The case offers a window into France’s broader, at-times opaque, back-channel diplomacy with Libya in the 2000s as Gadhafi sought to restore ties with Western powers. While the court indicated it could not confirm that Libyan money financed Sarkozy’s campaign, the criminal‑association finding underscores how prosecutors can pursue charges based on the existence of a corrupt scheme, even when direct monetary flow cannot be proven. The ruling is likely to influence Sarkozy’s standing within French politics and the ongoing legal scrutiny surrounding the then-president’s career, with further appellate and procedural steps expected in the days ahead.

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