The Criminal Court in France convicted Nicolas Sarkozy for criminal association in the alleged Libya campaign financing scandal, while clearing him of corruption.
The Criminal Court of Paris delivered a landmark ruling on Thursday, placing former French president Nicolas Sarkozy back at the center of judicial and political scrutiny.
Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal association in connection with allegations that his victorious 2007 presidential campaign was illegally financed with money from Libya, under Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
However, he was acquitted of charges of passive corruption and embezzlement of public funds, in a decision that will likely extend a judicial saga that has dragged on for over a decade.
Prosecutors had requested a seven-year prison term, accusing Sarkozy of striking a “Faustian corruption pact” with one of the most controversial dictators of recent history.
According to the case, Libyan funds were funneled to bolster Sarkozy’s candidacy, in exchange for promises to reintegrate Libya into the international community and to ease judicial pressure on Gaddafi’s relatives and associates.
The trial was colored by the testimony of Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who repeatedly claimed to have delivered up to five million euros in cash to Sarkozy and his inner circle.
Although he later contradicted himself and eventually recanted, his sudden death in Lebanon earlier this week did not alter the court’s timeline, and the verdict was read as planned.
Other close associates of Sarkozy, including Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant, were also tried, alongside several businessmen accused of facilitating the alleged transactions. The prosecution sought to prove that Sarkozy was both the mastermind and the ultimate beneficiary of the financing scheme.
At 70 years old, the former president denounced the ruling as “an infamy” and reaffirmed his innocence. Throughout the three-month trial, Sarkozy insisted there was “no evidence, not a single Libyan cent” to support the charges.
His defense team argued that the allegations were nothing more than a vendetta orchestrated by the Gaddafi clan in retaliation for France’s decisive role in the fall of the regime in 2011.
The legal consequences are significant. An appeal is expected, but the threat of real prison time looms once again. In France, sentences of more than two years cannot be commuted into electronic monitoring, although Sarkozy’s age allows him to apply for conditional release.
He was previously convicted to one year in prison for corruption and influence peddling in the so-called “Bismuth” case, a sentence he served under home confinement with an electronic bracelet.
In addition, the French Court of Cassation will soon review his appeal in the “Bygmalion” case, concerning the illegal financing of his 2012 campaign.
Beyond its legal impact, the case raises broader concerns about political transparency in France and the extent of foreign meddling in European elections.
For the European Union, the scandal underscores ongoing fears of authoritarian regimes attempting to sway democratic politics, with Paris once again at the epicenter of a storm mixing justice, power, and geopolitics.
