The trial of the Libyan financing case begins this Monday, January 6 for at least three months. Nicolas Sarkozy, suspected of having benefited from illegal financing for his 2007 presidential campaign, faces up to 10 years in prison.
Already convicted in the wiretapping affair and for illegal campaign financing in the Bygmalion affair, Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing to be judged in the most important legal case concerning him: suspicions of Libyan financing for the 2007 presidential campaign. trial begins this Monday, January 6 at the Paris criminal court and must last until April 10, or three months to determine whether the former President of the Republic is guilty of having benefited from illegal financing provided by Libya from Muammar Gaddafi.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who was sentenced to one year in prison in the wiretapping affair and six months in the Bygmalion affair – an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights is planned for the first as well as a cassation appeal for the second -, faces up to 10 years in prison and 375,000 euros in fines with this new trial. He is being prosecuted for “illegal financing of an electoral campaign”, “passive corruption”, “concealment of embezzlement of public funds” and “criminal association”.
Never has a former French head of state been prosecuted for a case as serious and sprawling as that of Libyan financing. Revealed in 2012 by Médiapart, This case required 10 years of investigation before the national financial prosecutor’s office referred it to justice. A look back at what Nicolas Sarkozy and the 13 other defendants are accused of.
Money transfers between Libya, Sarkozy and the other defendants
Relations between Nicolas Sarkozy and Muammar Gaddafi, who led Libya from 1969 until his death in 2011, began in December 2005, when the former served as Jacques Chirac’s Minister of the Interior. The two men met when the Libyan leader wanted to renew international economic and commercial ties. This contact would also have been an opportunity for Nicolas Sarkozy to seek financial support from Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 presidential campaign according to the testimonies of Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman who played intermediary , and Bechir Saleh who was leader Gaddafi’s chief of staff.
Several money transfers then allegedly took place from 2006, notably through Ziad Takieddine or Abdallah Al-Senoussi, the head of the Libyan secret services at the time. French justice was able to confirm that the businessman had received 6 million euros from the Libyan regime between January and November 2006, a sum that he would have paid to Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant according to his own statements. of Médiapart in 2016. Abdallah Al-Senoussia indicated for his part in 2012 before the International Criminal Court that he had supervised the transfer of 5 million euros.
In 2012, two documents seemed to confirm financial exchanges between Libya, Nicolas Sarkozy and his relatives. The first is revealed by Médiapart : this is an official note issued for the Libyan government, and signed by the former head of Libya’s foreign intelligence services, in which it is written: “We confirm to you the agreement in principle […] concerning the approval to support the electoral campaign of the candidate for the presidential elections, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, for an amount worth fifty million euros.”
The second document is a notebook belonging to Choukri Ghanem, former oil minister of Libya, in which the man had recorded the country’s payments to Nicolas Sarkozy or his relatives. The notebook was found after the death of the former minister whose body was discovered in the Danube in Vienna in 2012.
Gaddafi’s accusations against Sarkozy
If Nicolas Sarkozy and Muammar Gaddafi had cordial relations – the former head of state made his first official trip to Libya after his victory in the 2007 presidential election and invited the Libyan leader to France the same year -, it It was the Libyan statesman and his entourage who made the first accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy. In 2011, while the Arab Spring shook the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, the former French president was one of the first to recognize the National Transitional Council formed by the rebels to overthrow the Syrian regime. . In response, the Gaddafi clan publicly mentioned Libyan financing. “Sarkozy must return the money he accepted from Libya to finance his electoral campaign,” said Saif Al-Islam Gaddafi, one of the sons of the Libyan Guide, recalls The World. “It was we who provided him with the funds that allowed him to win the elections,” Muammar Gaddafi also assured in Le Figaro.
These accusations followed by the revelations of Médiapart and discoveries of the aforementioned documents gave rise to an investigation. The investigations resulted in several indictments including that of Nicolas Sarkozy in 2018 for “passive corruption”, “illegal financing of an electoral campaign” and “concealment of embezzlement of Libyan public funds”. Charges to which was added that of “criminal association” in 2020. Nicolas Sarkozy has always flatly denied the accusations made against him in this case, as in all the others.
Ziad Takieddine’s reversals
Aside from Nicolas Sarkozy and his relatives who deny having benefited from or organized Libyan financing, all the other parties to the affair have supported the existence of financial transfers, whether from the Gaddafi clan or from intermediaries like Ziad. Takieddine. The latter, however, returned to his statements in 2020 during an interview for Paris-Match And BFMTV : “Mr Sarkozy did not have Libyan financing for the presidential campaign”. A turnaround linked to an operation called “Save Sarko” and mounted by the politician’s entourage according to information from Release And Médiapart. A maneuver which was the subject of an investigation by the national financial prosecutor’s office and led to a new indictment of Nicolas Sarkozy, and others, for “witness bribery”.
But a few hours before the opening of the trial on January 6, Ziad Takieddine renewed the accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy, returning to his first version, on RTL : “Sarkozy went to see Gaddafi, he asked for money from Gaddafi. I can say that Gaddafi paid him up to 50 million euros.” Statements to which the former head of state and his lawyer give no credence, but which will be studied during the trial.
The 13 defendants in the Libyan financing trial
Nicolas Sarkozy is at the heart of the Libyan financing affair since this money would have been used to pay for the presidential campaign which allowed him to be elected head of the country in 2007. But he is far from being the only one involved in this case, the proof with the number of defendants: 13 people. Among them, four are close to Nicolas Sarkozy:
- Claude Guéant, Nicolas Sarkozy’s chief of staff for the Interior who became Minister of the Interior. He is being prosecuted for having participated in the organization of Libyan financing and having concealed at least one transfer of 500,000 euros.
- Brice Hortefeux, minister at the time of the events, appointed minister in various positions under the leadership of Nicolas Sarkozy. He is being prosecuted for having participated in the organization of Libyan financing.
- Eric Woerth, Secretary of State at the time of the events, became minister under Nicolas Sarkozy. He is suspected of having participated, as treasurer, in the “illegal financing of [la] electoral campaign” of Nicolas Sarkozy and of having concealed the massive use of cash.
- Thierry Gaubert, businessman and friend of Nicolas Sarkozy. He is suspected of having received 440,000 euros from the Libyan regime which were “intended to corrupt French public officials”.
In addition to these five people, seven others are also implicated for having served as intermediaries and having facilitated exchanges between the Libyan regime and Nicolas Sarkozy’s clan, such as Ziad Takieddine, Alexandre Djouhri, Bechir Saleh, Wahib Nacer, Khalid and Ahmed Bugshan and Siva Rajendram.