Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy said this Tuesday that he “did not commit any act of corruption, neither directly nor indirectly”, in the appeal trial over accusations of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.
It is expected that his trial in the second instance, together with nine other defendants, runs until June 3rd and let the verdict be known in the autumn.
In this complex political-financial serial that began in 2011, the former right-wing leader is accused of having tried to finance his successful 2007 presidential campaign with secret funds from Libyagoverned by dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which he has always vehemently denied.
In the first instance, the criminal court acquitted him of three of four offenses that were imputed to him.
The judges considered that Libyan financing of the 2007 election campaign had not been proven, despite the corroborated transfer of 6.5 million euros by Libya in January and November 2006.
According to the judges, no evidence was presented that these funds had actually reached the coffers of the campaign that took Sarkozy to the Élysée Palace.
However, they decided that the former president in fact allowed his closest collaborators, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, to contact the Libyan authorities in this regard during secret meetings they held in Libya at the end of 2005 with someone from Muammar Gaddafi’s close circle, wanted by French justice.
