While Nicolas Sarkozy is currently accused of illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi, the Public Prosecutor's Office has just requested a 7-year prison sentence and a 300.000 euro fine against the former President of the Republic. The latter denounced "the violence of the accusations" et "the excessiveness of the sentence requested".
Nicolas Sarkozy is being tried alongside twelve other defendants, including his former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, as well as intermediaries such as Ziad Takieddine and Alexandre Djouhri. The charges include corruption, receiving stolen public funds, illegal campaign financing, and criminal conspiracy.
The case began in 2012 with the publication by Mediapart of documents suggesting €50 million in Libyan funding for the 2007 campaign. Since then, the investigation has brought to light evidence such as the notebooks of former Libyan minister Choukri Ghanem, mentioning payments to Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as suspicious financial flows involving people close to the former president.
Nicolas Sarkozy proclaims his innocence
This morning, Nicolas Sarkozy had proclaimed his innocence, declaring in an interview with the Le Parisien : "Have I ever been given any concrete, tangible evidence, any proof that would demonstrate that I lied? Everything they've put against me is based on pure hypotheses. They've analyzed my assets, those of my wife, my ex-wife, and my children. They've pored over Takieddine and Gaubert's accounts, 1 pages of them. They haven't found the slightest trace of Libyan money in my campaign."
"I will prove my innocence! It will take as long as it takes, but we will get there!"
