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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was on trial on Monday, accused of receiving illicit campaign funds in an alleged ‘pact’ with late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

Since losing the 2012 presidential election, Sarkozy has been fighting a number of legal battles that has seen him being convicted in two cases, charged in another and being investigated in two more.

In December, France’s top appeals court rejected his appeal against a one-year prison sentence for influence peddling – which only requires him to wear an electronic tag rather than spending time in jail – but the Kadhafi pact may result in a harsher sentence for Carla Bruni’s dodgy spouse.

Monday’s trial began with a session devoted to procedural matters, with Sarkozy confirming to the presiding judge that he was “a lawyer” and that he was “married”.

The ex-pres is joined in the dock by 11 of his former aides whom the courts accuse of, after a decade of investigating, scheming with Kadhafi to illegally fund Sarkozy’s successful 2007 presidential election bid. All the defendants deny the charges.

Sarkozy and his cohorts allegedly pledged to help Kadhafi ‘rehabilitate his international image’ in return for campaign financing. Kadhafi’s international approval had taken a knock following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland and UTA Flight 772 over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.

The Libyan ruler’s brother-in-law, Abdullah Senussi, was also jailed for life in absentia by France for the attack. According to reports, Senussi has been named as a person of interest in the Lockerbie bombing as well, with authorities still looking to question him.

As politicians-turned-accused do, Sarkozy is crying ‘political conspiracy’ over the latest charges and insists he received no funds from Kadhafi. France’s financial prosecutor, Jean-Francois Bohnert, however, denies the claim, saying “Our work is not political work. We are not politically engaged.”

“We only have one compass — it is the law.”

According to JacarandaFM, the prosecution’s case is based on testimony from seven former Libyan dignitaries, travels to Libya by Gueant and Hortefeux, cash transactions, and the notebooks of former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem, who was discovered dead in the Danube in 2012.

Sarkozy has claimed that the statements by Kadhafi’s former inner circle were motivated by revenge after the French-backed military intervention in the African state, which eventually saw Kadhafi killed by his own people. This ‘betrayal’ followed a period during which France was actively courting Khadafi for Libya’s oil – even allowing the ruler to set up his harem tent in the middle of Paris in December 2007.

Sarkozy has also been accused of ‘tampering’ with some of the witnesses in the trial. Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key figure in the case and a fugitive in Lebanon, claimed several times that he helped deliver up to five million euros in cash from Kadhafi in 2006 and 2007.

But in 2020, Takieddine retracted his statement, raising suspicions that he may have been paid to change his tune. It’s not a ridiculous idea though as Sarkozy was charged in October 2023 with illegal witness tampering, while his wife was charged in 2024 with hiding evidence in the same case. Very gangster for a supermodel.

Le procès continue.

[source:jacarandafm]