Paris court to rule on Sarkozy's Libya financing case

A Paris court is set to rule Thursday on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s Libyan financing case, a verdict that could reshape the political legacy of a longtime right-wing figure. If convicted of secretly accepting funds from the Libyan government of Muammar Gadhafi to finance Sarkozy's 2007 campaign, he could face up to 10 years in prison. Sarkozy, who was elected president in 2007 and left office in 2012, has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing during a three-month trial that also involved 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers. Despite a string of legal troubles that have clouded his public image, Sarkozy remains influential in French politics and in entertainment circles through his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. A guilty verdict could lead to an appeal that would suspend any sentence pending review.

In the courtroom of the Libération building, prosecutors have argued for a substantial sentence, while Sarkozy and his defense team have sought to cast the case as politically motivated and based on disputed evidence. The proceedings, which began earlier this year, have explored a long-running tension in French politics over the limits of campaign finance and the role of foreign funds in domestic elections. A verdict on Thursday would come after months of testimony about secret funding, international diplomacy, and the perception of political influence in France.

The case traces back to 2011 when Libyan officials publicly claimed that the Libyan state had secretly funneled millions into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign to help him win the presidency. In 2012, the investigative outlet Mediapart published what it described as a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as a forgery, and he sued for defamation. French magistrates later said the memo appeared authentic, though no conclusive evidence of a completed transaction was presented at trial. Investigators also examined a series of trips to Libya by people close to Sarkozy during his time as interior minister from 2005 to 2007, including his chief of staff. In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that he had delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry under Sarkozy. He later retracted that claim, and the reversal now factors into a separate investigation into possible witness tampering. Sarkozy and his wife were charged with involvement in efforts to pressure Takieddine; Takieddine died Tuesday in Beirut, at age 75, after fleeing to Lebanon in 2020 and not attending the trial.

Sarkozy faced charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of the embezzlement of public funds and criminal association. Prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy knowingly benefited from what they described as a corruption pact with Gadhafi’s government. Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and reliant on forged or misrepresented evidence, and he has repeatedly denounced the case as a plot by opponents. During the trial, he argued that the allegations were retaliation for his push, as president, for Gadhafi’s removal and for taking a hard line on the Libyan regime during the 2011 intervention. He has alternately called the proceedings a vendetta and a propaganda effort against him.

The Sarkozy saga comes amid other legal questions surrounding him. In June, he was stripped of the Legion of Honor after a separate conviction in a different case, where he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for attempting to bribe a magistrate in 2014 in exchange for information about a case in which he was implicated. He was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for one year, but received conditional release after just over three months. Earlier, he was convicted last year of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid and has appealed that verdict to the Court of Cassation, which remains pending. As the landmark Libya financing case unfolds, Sarkozy’s legal and political fates remain closely watched in France and among international observers who track how foreign influence and domestic campaigns intersect in contemporary politics.