Sarkozy faces prison over alleged Libyan cash
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, faces prison over alleged Libyan financing of his campaign in 2007.
According to AP News, the financing of the 2007 campaign is opening interest in France’s back-channel communication with the Libyan government of Colonel Gaddafi.
The trial where this channel has come to light has been ongoing since January of 2025 and has ended on the 8th of April. Lawyers gave their closing arguments and a verdict is expected later this year.
The French prosecutor has suggested a seven-year prison sentence for the ex-president who has denied any wrongdoing.
During the trial, there was a key focus on talks between France and Libya in the 2000s. This was a period when Gaddafi was looking to rehabilitate Libya’s international standing following the Lockerbie and UTA flight bombings.
Both bombings were officially attributed to Libya by American and French investigations and saw British and French civilians murdered with the Lockerbie case being the deadliest terror attack in UK history.
Gaddafi himself accepted the responsibility for the attacks by Libya, yet neither has sufficient evidence to prove that Libya indeed sponsored these attacks.
While Libya accepted responsibility for the bombings, questions about the actual perpetrators remain. Dr Swire, a prominent spokesperson for Lockerbie victims’ families, has pointed to evidence suggesting a Syrian terrorist cell, funded by Iran, may have planted the bombs at Heathrow.
Despite the blame for the bombings still lacking evidence for Libyan blame, the current investigation and alleged donations by Libya to the ex-French president have led the French families of the bombings to call into question whether French government officials forgot about the bombings in exchange for business opportunities with Libya.
One member who lost her father in the bombing, Nicoletta Diasio, told the court that she wondered if the victims of the bombings “could have been used for bartering” in talks between France and Libya.
Sarkozy made sure to respond to such allegations by stating he “never ever betrayed” families and did not use their deaths to bargain for funding.
These questions have been asked of Sarkozy as he was one of the first in the West to restore relations with Libya once Gaddafi had accepted responsibility and ended his nuclear weapons program.
So much so that he invited Gaddafi to Paris in 2007 with a five-day official visit. Sarkozy defended this by explaining it was a matter of diplomatic gesture after the release of Bulgarian nurses by Libya in a deal which was brokered by First Lady Cecilia Sarkozy and EU officials on July 24, 2007.
According to al-Islam, the money was paid in two instalments of $2.5 million each, with Libya expecting Sarkozy to drop legal proceedings related to the 1989 UTA bombing in return.
Sarkozy categorically denied these allegations at his trial, stating: “You’ll never find one Libyan euro, one Libyan cent in my campaign. There’s no corruption money because there was no corruption.”
As Sarkozy awaits the verdict, the 70-year-old former president faces the possibility of a seven-year prison sentence if convicted of the corruption charges.
AP News, Maghrebi.org
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