the trial of Nicolas Sarkozy has opened

A former head of state and three ex-ministers seated in a line, side by side on the dock: it is with this unprecedented image that the trial of Nicolas Sarkozy opened on Monday for suspicion of illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.

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The only defendants to have chosen to sit on the folding seats of the courtroom, the others sat in the front row of the courtroom, Nicolas Sarkozy and three figures from his five-year term, Brice Hortefeux, Claude Guéant and Eric Woerth, sat stood up in turn to state their identity.

Fifth trial in five years for the former president

Nicolas Sarkozy, 69, is well versed in the exercise: this is his fifth trial in five years. Looking serious, he walked to the stand in his navy blue suit, crossed his hands in front of him, before giving the court his date and place of birth, and the names of his parents.

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Profession?, asks President Nathalie Gavarino. “Lawyer”. Family situation ? “I am married”. Of French nationality? “My wife ?” No, you. “Ah yes,” the ex-president apologizes with a little laugh.

Nicolas Sarkozy arrived shortly before 1:30 p.m., entering the hubbub of the packed room after passing without making a statement in front of a wall of cameras.

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Before the opening of the audience, he greeted several people, his brother Guillaume is present, then spoke, standing in the courtroom, with his former ministers.

Four absent among the twelve men tried

Twelve men were tried in total. Among those present in court, Thierry Gaubert, a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, and the discreet intermediary Alexandre Djouhri. Four are absent: two Saudi businessmen, the Libyan Béchir Saleh (the former chief of staff of Muammar Gaddafi) and the sulphurous Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine, both targeted by an arrest warrant. On the run to Lebanon, the latter claimed on RTL Monday morning that “no one” had “summoned” him for this hearing.

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After the call of the defendants, the civil parties and the witnesses, the president gave the floor to the defense lawyers for procedural questions, which should occupy the court throughout the first week. The hearing was suspended around 3:00 p.m. for one hour, so that the court deliberated on a priority question of constitutionality (QPC).

Nicolas Sarkozy is accused of having entered into a “corruption pact” with the wealthy Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who fell in 2011, at the end of 2005, notably with the help of his very close friends Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant, so that he would “support “financially his accession to the Elysée.

Tried for corruption, concealment of embezzlement of public funds, illegal campaign financing and criminal conspiracy, he faces 10 years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros, as well as deprivation of civil rights (therefore ineligibility) of up to 5 years. Nicolas Sarkozy’s entourage assures that he is “combative” and “determined” to prove his innocence in the face of what he has always described as a “fable”.

No bracelet yet for N. Sarkozy

The accusation is brought by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF). “Our work is not political work, we are not politically engaged,” financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert declared Monday morning on BFMTV/RMC. “We only have one compass, and that is the law.”

Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted at first instance and on appeal in the Bygmalion case (on the financing of his 2012 campaign, he appealed to the Court of Cassation), and in the Bismuth case. In this last case, known as “tapping”, his appeal was rejected in mid-December, making his sentence to one year in prison under an electronic bracelet definitive, an unprecedented sanction for a former president.

He does not yet wear a bracelet, it may take several weeks, which allowed him to spend his vacation in the Seychelles, with his wife, the singer Carla Bruniand their daughter. The hearings will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, until April 10. Nicolas Sarkozy will, according to his entourage, be present at each hearing during the first month, devoted to suspicions of financing. Additional aspects will be discussed in the following weeks.

“He will fight the artificial construction imagined by the prosecution. There is no Libyan financing of the campaign,” declared his lawyer, Me Christophe Ingrain.