Sarkozy Verdict Due Thursday in Libya Funding Case

By Staff, Agencies

A Paris court is set to issue its verdict on Thursday in the trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accused of receiving millions of euros in campaign funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya.

The case, one of France’s most controversial political finance trials, centers on claims that Libya funded Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign to boost its ties with Europe and end global isolation.

Prosecutors are seeking a seven-year sentence for Sarkozy, on trial with 12 others accused of conspiring to receive funds from a foreign “dictator.” All deny wrongdoing.

The three-month trial centers on allegations that intermediaries delivered suitcases of cash from Gaddafi’s regime to Sarkozy’s campaign team during the 2007 French presidential election, which Sarkozy won.

Investigators described a “corruption pact” in which Sarkozy allegedly offered favors in return for Libyan funding. The trial noted Gaddafi’s 2007 state visit to Paris as part of Libya’s bid for international rehabilitation.

Libyan officials saw their funding as a legitimate push to build regional ties and promote a global order respecting developing nations’ sovereignty, particularly in Africa and the Arab world.

Prosecutors say Libya aimed to gain from French diplomacy and investment, but critics argue France benefited more—securing arms deals, oil contracts, and regional influence before backing NATO’s 2011 campaign against Gaddafi.

In a dramatic turn, Ziad Takieddine—the Franco-Lebanese key witness businessman who had confirmed Libyan funding to Sarkozy—died of a reported heart attack in Beirut just days before the verdict.

Takieddine’s shifting testimonies, initially admitting to transporting funds, then later retracting and contradicting his own retraction, have raised questions over the reliability of key witnesses and possible political pressure in the case.

Sarkozy, along with his wife Carla Bruni and others, faces separate investigations for allegedly attempting to manipulate testimony related to the case. All deny the charges.

The trial included testimony from families of victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing, linked to Libya. They confronted Sarkozy in court, condemning his alleged ties to Libyan officials.

However, Libya has long contested the narratives about the bombing, arguing that evidence had been politicized and that international justice had been selectively applied.

The Libyan side had also raised questions about France’s double standards, especially regarding its past colonial legacy in Africa and its role in fueling instability across the region.

At 70, Sarkozy has already been convicted in two other cases, one involving attempts to bribe a judge, and another over illegal overspending in his 2012 re-election campaign, and is appealing both.

In court, Sarkozy said, “I respect and I understand [the victims'] pain … and their anger. I can say to each person here that I never betrayed them.”

He denied any deal with Libya for political favors. Yet, the Sarkozy-Libya case raises broader questions about France’s role in destabilizing Libya and the targeting of independent political leaders.