Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years in jail in Libyan funding case

PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from the government of then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Al Jazeera reported.

The Paris criminal court acquitted the 70-year-old of all other charges, including illegal campaign financing and passive corruption, on Thursday. However, the guilty ruling means Sarkozy, who led France between 2007 and 2012 and retired from active politics in 2017, will serve jail time even if he appeals.

Sarkozy was accused of making a deal with Gaddafi in 2005, when he was interior minister, to secure campaign financing in exchange for supporting the then-isolated Libyan government on the international stage. The former French president has denied the charges, saying the case was politically motivated.

Two of Sarkozy’s closest associates during his presidency, former ministers Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux, were also found guilty of criminal association but acquitted of other charges. Eric Woerth, Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign treasurer, was acquitted, Al Jazeera reported.

Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy, as a serving minister and party leader at the time, had “allowed his close collaborators and political supporters over whom he had authority and who acted in his name” to approach the Libyan authorities in order to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support”.

The court, however, did not accept prosecutors’ claims that Sarkozy directly benefited from the alleged illegal campaign financing.

The case traces its origins to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gaddafi himself claimed that the Libyan state had secretly funneled millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. In 2012, the French 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 filed a defamation suit.

Al Jazeera reported that the trial included statements from seven former Libyan officials, financial transfer records, trips to Libya by Gueant and Hortefeux, and the notebooks of the former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem, who was found drowned in the Danube river in Vienna in 2012. Prosecutors argued that Sarkozy had knowingly benefited from what they described as a “corruption pact” with Gaddafi’s regime.

Libya’s long-time dictator was overthrown and killed by opponents during the 2011 Arab Spring, amid NATO military intervention, in which France under Sarkozy played a significant role.

Sarkozy has faced numerous legal challenges since leaving office. He was previously convicted for corruption and sentenced to a one-year jail term, which he served under electronic tagging for three months before being granted conditional release. He also received a one-year jail term, six months with another six months suspended, in the so-called “Bygmalion affair” involving illegal campaign financing, which he has appealed at France’s top court.

Beyond legal proceedings, Sarkozy has faced consequences such as losing his Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, following his corruption conviction. Despite this, he continues to wield influence in France’s right-wing political circles and maintains a regular rapport with President Emmanuel Macron, Al Jazeera noted. (ANI)