Nicolas Sarkozy back in court on Monday

Did Nicolas Sarkozy accept money from a wealthy dictator to finance the campaign that brought him to the top of the state? The former president is back in court on Monday alongside three former ministers. In this resounding affair, the former head of state is suspected of having entered into, via his relatives, a “corruption pact” with the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi so that he would contribute to his victorious 2007 campaign, in exchange notably a return to favor on the international scene.

A “fable”, has always affirmed Nicolas Sarkozy, who “waits with determination these four months of hearing. He will fight the artificial construction imagined by the prosecution. There is no Libyan financing of the campaign,” said his lawyer, Mr.^e Christophe Ingrain.

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

For the first time, the former head of state will appear with a criminal record, three weeks after being definitively sentenced for corruption in the wiretapping affair to one year in prison under an electronic bracelet – he must be summoned soon before a judge to determine the terms.

After ten years of investigations, two investigating judges estimated in August 2023 that the charges were sufficient to bring 13 men to justice, including former ministers Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth – only 12 defendants will nevertheless be tried, the one of them having died. The court will explore a rich file and delve into a bygone era, when Libya was ruled for nearly 40 years by Muammar Gaddafi.

The case began for the prosecution at the end of 2005, in Tripoli, during a meeting officially devoted to illegal immigration between the colonel and Nicolas Sarkozy, Minister of the Interior, who was then thinking about the presidential election “not just when ( he shaves.”

A “pact” was then concluded, according to the prosecution, which is based on the declarations of seven former Libyan dignitaries, on the discreet movements, before and after, of Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, but also on the notebooks of the former Libyan Oil Minister Choukri Ghanem, found drowned in the Danube in 2012.

The supposed counterparts? First an international rehabilitation: Gaddafi will be welcomed with great fanfare 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 people. Around twenty relatives are civil parties to the trial.

Among the defendants are two shadowy men, experienced in parallel international negotiations: the discreet Alexandre Djouhri and the sulphurous and versatile Ziad Takieddine – today on the run in Lebanon. Three transfers from the Libyan authorities for a total of 6 million euros were found on the latter’s account; he also described “suitcases” given to Claude Guéant, containing “large bills”.

Investigations also showed that cash of unknown origin had circulated at Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign headquarters: Éric Woerth, treasurer at the time, retorted that these were “anonymous donations” for a few thousand euros. only.

Nicolas Sarkozy disputes everything: for him, the Libyans’ accusations are only “revenge” explained by his active support for the rebels at the time of the Arab Spring which brought down Gaddafi, killed in October 2011. His defense rejects the potential counterparts and protests that “no trace” of illegal financing was found in the campaign accounts, also mocking the “16 versions” of Ziad Takieddine in this file.

One of them, a temporary retraction in 2020, is the subject of another investigation: a dozen people are implicated for having wanted to exonerate Nicolas Sarkozy by fraudulent means. The ex-president is indicted, suspected of having approved these maneuvers.