By Obinna Uballa
A Paris court on Thursday convicted former French president Nicolas Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy in connection with allegations that late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi secretly funded his 2007 election campaign, AFP reported.
The ruling marks another dramatic chapter in the legal troubles of the 70-year-old ex-leader, who has already been convicted twice since leaving office in 2012 and stripped of France’s highest national honour. Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing, reports said.
Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy, then a senior minister and party leader, allowed his close aides “acting in his name” to seek or attempt to obtain financial support from the Libyan authorities.
However, the court stopped short of declaring Sarkozy the direct beneficiary of the alleged illegal campaign funds. He was acquitted of embezzlement of Libyan public money, passive corruption, and illegal campaign financing.
Prosecutors had sought a seven-year prison sentence, but the court deferred sentencing until later in the hearing. Sarkozy appeared in court alongside his wife, model and musician Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.
Two of his close allies were also convicted: former top aide Claude Gueant for passive corruption and falsification, and ex-minister Brice Hortefeux for conspiracy. Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign treasurer, Eric Woerth, was acquitted.
Reports say the verdict coincided with the death earlier this week of Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman and key accuser who claimed to have delivered millions of euros in Libyan cash to Sarkozy’s camp, only to later retract and then contradict himself.
Prosecutors argued Sarkozy struck a secret pact with Kadhafi in 2005 to bankroll his 2007 presidential run, in return for restoring Libya’s tarnished global image. Sarkozy later spearheaded NATO’s 2011 intervention that helped topple the Libyan strongman.
The case drew on testimony from former Libyan officials, evidence of Sarkozy aides’ trips to Tripoli, suspicious money transfers, and the notebooks of ex-Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem, who mysteriously drowned in the Danube in 2012.
Sarkozy’s conviction adds to his mounting legal setbacks, observers say. He has already been found guilty in the “Bygmalion affair” over illegal campaign financing and in a graft case involving influence-peddling, both of which resulted in jail terms he is appealing.
Despite his legal woes, Sarkozy, once dubbed the “hyper-president”, retains clout within France’s conservative right and remains a regular behind-the-scenes interlocutor with President Emmanuel Macron, according to reports.
