Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on charges of illegal campaign funding from Libya

Paris: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday went on trial in Paris over accusations that his 2007 campaign received illegal financing from the Libyan government of Moammar Gadhafi.

The trial, scheduled to last three months, is far from the first for Sarkozy, 69, a conservative politician who led France from 2007 to 2012. But it represents one of the most serious legal threats to the French politician since he left office.

Just last month, Sarkozy exhausted his final appeal in a separate corruption and influence peddling case, making him the first former French president sentenced to actual detention, although he will serve his time under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.

But of all the legal cases against Sarkozy, the Libya one is probably the most sprawling, convoluted and explosive. It involves accusations that his campaign illegally accepted significant funding from Gadhafi, a former Libyan strongman who was killed by opposition fighters in 2011.

Sarkozy, who no longer holds public office but retains some political influence, has denied wrongdoing but could face up to 10 years in prison and be fined nearly $400,000.

Here is what you need to know about the case.

What is the trial about?

Sarkozy is facing charges of illegal campaign financing, criminal conspiracy, concealing the misappropriation of public funds and passive corruption (a charge that applies to people suspected of receiving money or favors).

The case against him involves a web of political and financial ties between Sarkozy's advisers, officials who were part of Gadhafi's government, and businesspeople or bankers who acted as intermediaries.

Twelve other people were also ordered to stand trial on similar charges.

"Our thesis is that of a corruption pact," Jean-François Bohnert, France's top financial prosecutor, told RMC radio Monday, adding that there was proof that 6 million euros (about $6.2 million today) had transited from Libyan coffers to France.

Prosecutors say that Sarkozy and his allies had sought financing from Libya, in violation of election funding rules, and that the Libyan government had promised to provide it. In return, they said, it wanted economic deals, diplomatic recognition and possibly assistance from France in rescinding an arrest warrant against a top Libyan official.

Sarkozy visited Libya shortly after he was elected, then welcomed Gadhafi for a widely criticized state visit, where the Libyan strongman memorably pitched his Bedouin-style tent in a Paris garden.

How did the case start?

In 2011, as Libya was roiled by fighting between the army and rebels, Gadhafi's son said in a media interview that Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign had taken Libyan money.

Then, in 2012, the investigative news website Mediapart published a document, presented as a note by Libya's secret services, that mentioned a deal to fund Sarkozy's campaign with up to 50 million euros. That same year, as part of a separate investigation, Ziad Takieddine, a French Lebanese businessperson, made a similar allegation.

In 2013, prosecutors opened an investigation. It lasted a decade and involved more than 20 countries, 50 police raids and 70 volumes of case files.

How has Sarkozy responded?

Sarkozy, who muttered angrily under his breath in the courtroom Monday as prosecutors made their case, has repeatedly and strenuously denied any wrongdoing.

He says the accusations were driven mostly by allies of Gadhafi seeking revenge. Under his leadership, France played a prominent role in the NATO-led campaign of airstrikes that ultimately led to the toppling of Gadhafi and his death at the hands of Libyan rebels.

There have been conflicting accounts about the sequence of events and the amounts of money involved, and some of the defendants have shifted their versions of what happened.

Sarkozy's legal team has seized on the vagaries and gray areas of the investigation, which didn't clearly establish a total amount believed to have been sent by Libya or spent by the campaign.

"Sometimes it's in euros, sometimes in dollars, sometimes in dinars, sometimes 2 million, 3 million, 50 million, 400 million," Christophe Ingrain, Sarkozy's lawyer, told RTL radio Sunday. "This isn't serious."

Under French law, though, prosecutors do not have to prove that a corrupt deal was fully carried out to secure a conviction -- only that one was agreed upon.

Sarkozy's official records for the 2007 campaign indicated that he spent more than 21 million euros, and any off-the-book financing from Libya would have enabled him to skirt France's strict spending cap for presidential campaigns.

Has Sarkozy been convicted before?

Yes, twice. Sarkozy has faced multiple accusations of financial impropriety since he left office, although that has done little to dent his popularity with the base of his conservative party or to prevent his memoirs from flying off the shelves.

In 2021, he was convicted of trying to obtain information from a judge about a court case against him.

Sarkozy has exhausted his appeal options in that case, but he will not be incarcerated. Instead, he will serve one year under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, although a judge has not yet ruled on the practical details.

Sarkozy was also convicted in 2021 to a year of house arrest for illegally financing his unsuccessful 2012 reelection campaign, which wildly exceeded France's spending limits. An appeals court last year upheld the conviction but halved his sentence, and that case is still going through the appeals process.

Other cases against Sarkozy have been dropped, including one in which he was accused of manipulating the heiress to the L'Oréal fortune into financing his 2007 campaign.

And some cases are still being investigated, including an offshoot of the Libya case. In 2023, Sarkozy was placed under formal investigation on charges of witness tampering, after allegations that his allies pressured Takieddine into retracting his accusations.