In what comes as a shocking revelation, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to go on trial over allegations of receiving illegal financing for his 2007 presidential campaign by the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's government. Sarkozy faces a trial, which is one of the most shocking of several scandals that involved the former French president.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, faces several charges, including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzlement of public funds and criminal association, punished by up to 10 years in prison. However, he has denied any wrongdoing.
Sarkozy's reaction
The trial also involves 11 other defendants, including three former ministers. Notably, Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman, who is accused of playing the role of a middleman has fled to Lebanon, with rare chances of him appearing at the Paris court.
Sarkozy is looking forward to the hearings “with determination,” his lawyer Christophe Ingrain said in a statement.
“There is no Libyan financing of the campaign,” the statement said. “We want to believe the court will have the courage to examine the facts objectively, without being guided by the nebulous theory that poisoned the investigation.”
The background of the case
The case dates back to March 2011 when a report surfaced in Libya saying that the Gadhafi government had financed Sarkozy's 2007 campaign. In an interview, Gadhafi even said, “it's thanks to us that he reached the presidency. We provided him with the funds that allowed him to win,” without providing any amount or other details.
Sarkozy, who had welcomed Gadhafi to Paris with great honours in 2007, became one of the first Western leaders to push for a military intervention in Libya in March 2011, when Arab Spring pro-democracy protests swept the Arab world. Gadhafi was killed by opposition fighters in October that same year, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.
(With agency inputs)
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