The French financial prosecutor's office has asked to prosecute former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in power between 2007 and 2012, and twelve other people in the case opened for the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential election campaign, which he won, by the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi. This case began to be investigated 10 years ago, when Sakozy had already left the Elysee.
In its statement, the Prosecutor's Office requests that the former president be tried for passive corruption, criminal association, illegal financing of the electoral campaign and concealment of embezzlement of public funds. The parties now have a month to present their arguments and the final decision on whether there is a trial will rest with the investigating judges.
It is also requested to prosecute the former Minister of the Interior, Brice Hortefeux, or Eric Woerth, the treasurer of that campaign. Sarkozy was indicted in 2018 for illegally financing it, although the case was opened in 2013. He is accused of allowing his associates and collaborators “to act to obtain or attempt to obtain from the Gaddafi regime” financial support for this campaign, which is estimated at several million euros.
The two Franco-Lebanese businessmen who allegedly acted as intermediaries are also charged. The case began to be investigated after the publications of the French media Mediapart, which revealed a document proving that Sarkozy's campaign had been financed with Libyan funds.
It is not the only judicial case in which the former president is involved, who has always been persecuted by suspicion of corruption. He has already sat on the bench for the so-called “wiretapping case”, which earned him a three-year sentence, and which he appealed. The verdict will be announced next week.
In this case, he was accused of trying to obtain confidential information, by exchanging favors, and influencing judicial decisions on an investigation in which he appeared as a defendant.. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal financing of his 2012 campaign, which he lost to the socialist François Hollande.