Suspicions of Libyan financing: Sarkozy expected in court

A new trial for Nicolas Sarkozy: the former head of state is expected at the Paris Court on Monday afternoon, this time to answer, for four months and alongside three former ministers,accusations of illegal financing of his campaign of 2007 by the Libya of Muammar Gaddafi.

The former president, 69, will be present for the opening of his trial at 1:30 p.m., assures his entourage, saying he is “combative” and “determined” to prove his innocence in the face of what he has always described as “ fable”.

He is accused of having entered into a “corruption pact” with the wealthy Libyan dictator 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 “financially support” his accession. at the Élysée.

Ten years in prison and 375,000 euros fine

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 ‘at 5 years old. The accusation will be brought by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).

“I am convinced of guilt which leads to a trial”, drawn from “hearings, witnesses, tracing of financial flows, elements of mutual assistance which were provided to us by 21 countries in total”, declared financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert Monday morning on BFMTV/RMC.

But this thesis, “which will be fought by the defense”, “must be shared by those who decide, the judges”, who will decide after the four months of trial, he added.

“We only have one compass”

“Our work is not political work, we are not politically engaged,” he also declared. We only have one compass, and that is the law.”

This is the fifth trial in five years for Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted at first instance and on appeal in the Bygmalion case (on the financing of his 2012 campaign, he filed an appeal), 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 could take several weeks – which allowed him to spend his vacation in the Seychelles, with his wife, singer Carla Bruni, and their daughter.

“He’s going to fight.”

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.

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,” said his lawyer, Mr.^e Christophe Ingrain.

“Corruption pact”

For the prosecution, 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 Interior Minister thinking about the presidential election “not just when (he) shaves”. 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 of the existence of this financial support, which would have come through Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, then close guard of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Controversial visit to Paris

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. Around twenty relatives are civil parties to the trial.

Among the defendants is former minister Eric Woerth, treasurer of the campaign, in which cash of unknown origin circulated according to the investigation. As well as 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.

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