On Thursday, a Paris court convicted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for his involvement in using Libyan funds to finance his 2007 campaign, finding him guilty of complicity and sentencing him to five years in prison.

This historic ruling made Sarkozy the first president in modern French history to be sentenced to actual imprisonment. Surprisingly, despite the 70-year-old former president's intention to appeal, the court still ruled that he would be imprisoned. The court stated that the date of imprisonment would be determined later, avoiding the humiliating scene of the conservative leader being taken away from the packed courtroom with handcuffs on.

The court found that Sarkozy was involved in a conspiracy between 2005 and 2007 to fund his successful campaign by accepting Libyan money in exchange for diplomatic benefits, constituting an illegal association offense. However, the court dismissed other three charges, including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy condemned the verdict.

"If they want me to spend a night in prison, I will go. But I will do so with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal," he said in the presence of his wife - singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

"I beg the French people - whether they voted for me or supported me or not - to understand what just happened. Hatred really has no limits," he said.

The court called his actions "extremely serious" and stated that his involvement in raising campaign funds from Libya "could undermine citizens' trust in public institutions."

The court ruled: "The purpose of this conspiracy was to gain an advantage in your campaign."

Sarkozy served as Minister of the Interior before being elected president in 2007. The court stated that he used his position "to plan the highest level of corruption."

Sarkozy called this funding scheme merely "an idea."

"I was convicted, allegedly because I allowed two of my staff to push forward this idea - this idea of illegal financing for my campaign," he said.

The court also found that two close aides of Sarkozy during his presidency - former minister Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux - were guilty of illegal association, but also dismissed some other charges against them.

The chief judge, in a lengthy reading of the judgment lasting several hours, stated that Sarkozy allowed his aides to contact Libyan authorities "to obtain or attempt to obtain funds from Libya to support" his campaign.

However, the court also stated that it could not determine exactly whether the Libyan funds were eventually used to finance Sarkozy's campaign. The court explained that according to French law, even if the funds were not paid or could not be proven, a corruption plot could still constitute a crime.

Sarkozy was elected president in 2007, but failed to win re-election in 2012. Earlier this year, a three-month trial involving 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers, during which Sarkozy denied any misconduct.

Despite multiple legal scandals that have cast a shadow over his presidential legacy, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in French right-wing politics and the entertainment industry, thanks to his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.

Alleged Libyan Funding

The charges originated in 2011, when a Libyan news agency and former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi claimed that the Libyan state had secretly injected millions of euros into Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.

In 2012, the French investigative media outlet Médiapart published a memo supposedly from the Libyan intelligence service, mentioning a 50 million euro funding agreement. Sarkozy claimed the document was fake and filed a defamation lawsuit. On Thursday, the court ruled that "it now appears that the document is likely to be fake."

Investigators also looked into the trips of Sarkozy's close associates, including his chief of staff, to Libya between 2005 and 2007.

In 2016, Lebanese-French businessman Ziad Takieddine told Médiapart that he had transported suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Ministry of the Interior under Sarkozy's leadership. However, he later withdrew this statement.

This recantation is currently the focus of another possible investigation into witness tampering. Sarkozy and his wife have been preliminarily charged with attempting to pressure Takieddine and the case has not yet gone to trial.

Takieddine, one of the co-defendants, died in Beirut on Tuesday at the age of 75. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

Prosecutors accused Sarkozy of benefiting from a "corrupt agreement" with the Gaddafi government.

The long-ruling dictator was overthrown and killed in a revolt in 2011, ending his four-decade rule over the North African country.

Sarkozy Condemns It As A "Conspiracy"

This trial revealed secret negotiations between France and Libya in the 2000s, when Gaddafi sought to restore diplomatic relations with the West. Previously, Libya was seen as an isolated country.

Sarkozy called these accusations politically motivated and based on forged evidence. During the trial, he condemned it as a "conspiracy" orchestrated by "liars and villains" (including the "Gaddafi family").

He implied that the allegations of illegal campaign financing were a retaliation against him for calling for the overthrow of Gaddafi as French president.

In 2011, the Arab Spring democratic protests swept across the Arab world, and Sarkozy was one of the earliest Western leaders to advocate for military intervention in Libya.

"What credibility can such statements, marked by revenge, have?" Sarkozy asked during the trial.

Strip of the Legion of Honor

In June this year, after being convicted in another case, Sarkozy was stripped of France's highest honor - the Legion of Honor.

Earlier, he was convicted of corruption and influence trading for trying to bribe a local judge in 2014 to obtain information related to a legal case involving him.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7554186716320416297/

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