Suspicions of Libyan financing: opening of Nicolas Sarkozy’s trial in Paris

The fifth trial in five years of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy opened Monday in Paris: this time he must answer, alongside three former ministers, to accusations of illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by Libya. Muammar Gaddafi Dressed in a navy blue suit, the former head of state (2007-2012) entered the courtroom at the start of the afternoon, passing in front of a wall. cameras without making a declaration.

Among the 11 other defendants are ex-ministers Brice Hortefeux, Claude Guéant and Eric Woerth, as well as Thierry Gaubert, close to Nicolas Sarkozy, and intermediary Alexandre Djouhri. The vast courtroom, where the case is to be heard for four months, was packed. Looking serious, the former head of state walked towards the bar in his navy blue suit, crossed his hands in front of him, before giving the court his date and place of birth, and the name of his parents.

Profession?, asks President Nathalie Gavarino. ” Lawyer “. Family situation ? “I’m married.” Of French nationality? ” My wife ? » No, you. “Ah yes,” the ex-president apologizes with a little laugh. The entourage of Nicolas Sarkozy, 69, assures that he is “combative” and “determined” to prove his innocence in the face of what he has always described as a “fable”.

He is accused, while he was Minister of the Interior, of having entered into a “corruption pact” with wealthy Libyan dictator, so that he could financially “support” his accession to the French presidency.

Tried for corruption, concealment of embezzlement of public funds, illegal campaign financing and criminal conspiracy, Nicolas Sarkozy faces 10 years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros, as well as deprivation of civil rights (therefore ineligibility) of up to at five years old. 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.

Holidays in Seychelles

“I am convinced of guilt” drawn “from hearings, witnesses, tracing of financial flows, elements of mutual assistance which were provided to us by 21 countries”, declared the financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert Monday on BFMTV/RMC. “Our work is not political work,” he said: “we only have one compass, and that is the law.”

Nicolas Sarkozy has already been sentenced at first instance and on appeal for illegal campaign financing to one year’s imprisonment, including six months under an electronic bracelet, an unprecedented sanction for a former head of state in France. He filed an appeal before the Court of Cassation (the highest court in the French legal order) in this case linked to excessive spending during his lost 2012 presidential campaign.

Mr. Sarkozy does not yet wear an electronic bracelet – it may take several weeks – which allowed him to spend the Christmas holidays in the Seychelles, with his wife, the Italian-born singer Carla Bruni, and their daughter. The trial will begin with the appeal of the 12 defendants, civil parties and witnesses, before procedural questions, which should occupy the court throughout the first week.

The hearings will take place on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, until April 10. According to his entourage, Nicolas Sarkozy will 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.

“Clue bundle”

Nicolas Sarkozy disputes everything: for him, the Libyans’ accusations are only “revenge” explained by his active support for the Libyan rebels at the time of the Arab Spring which brought down Mr. Gaddafi, killed in October 2011. The accusation believes that the “corruption pact” was established in the fall of 2005 in Tripoli, under the tent of Muammar Gaddafi, known for being very generous with his foreign visitors.

Nicolas Sarkozy was then an ambitious and highly publicized minister thinking about the presidential election. His visit to Libya was officially devoted to illegal immigration. The prosecution was unable to establish an exact total amount of the alleged financing. But after 10 years of investigation, a “cluster of clues” convinced the investigating judges. The supposed counterparts? First an international rehabilitation: Gaddafi will be welcomed with great fanfare in 2007 by Nicolas Sarkozy, newly elected president, during a controversial visit to Paris, the first in three decades.

But also the signing of major contracts and a legal helping hand to Abdallah Senoussi, director of Libyan intelligence sentenced to life imprisonment in his absence in France for his role in the attack on the UTA DC-10 in 1989, which cost the lives of 170 people including 54 French. Around twenty relatives are civil parties to the trial.