Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial on Monday over the biggest political finance scandal in modern French history, in which he is alleged to have received millions of euros in illegal campaign funds from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. It happened.
The historic trial of the right-wing former French president and 12 others (including three former ministers) on charges of conspiracy to receive large-scale funding from foreign dictators has dented already low voter confidence in France's political class. may worsen further.
After a decade-long anti-corruption investigation, the court ruled that what the investigating judge called a “corrupt pact” between Sarkozy and the Libyan regime, in which intermediaries illegally financed Sarkozy's victory. He will stand trial on charges that he delivered a suitcase full of cash to a ministry building in Paris. 2007 Presidential Election Campaign.
The court will examine whether the Libyan regime sought diplomatic, legal or business favors in exchange for funding Sarkozy's presidential campaign.
One of the claims was allegedly related to Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi's chief spy and executive officer. Senoussi was sentenced in 1999 to life imprisonment in absentia by a French court for his role in the 1989 bombing of a UTA airliner over Niger, which killed 170 people. The court will hear how the Libyan regime allegedly asked Sarkozy's aides to find a way to lift France's international arrest warrant against Senoussi.
Laure Heinig, a lawyer for the relatives of the 15 people killed in the UTA plane bombing, said her clients would be “in exchange for money” if they heard in court that “the arrest of the person who killed their family” could be “in exchange for money.” He said he would complain of shock. He said the alleged corruption deals meant that “the money that Nicolas Sarkozy used to get elected in 2007 was money tainted with the blood of these families.”
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied any wrongdoing in the case.
The three-month trial will likely unravel his complicated relationship with President Sarkozy. Colonel Gaddafian authoritarian dictator whose brutal 41-year rule was marked by human rights abuses and was isolated internationally over the regime's ties to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988. He is the leader of Libya.
Sarkozy's aides are said to have met with members of Gaddafi's regime in Libya in 2005, when Sarkozy was interior minister. Shortly after becoming French president in 2007, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader on an extended state visit to Paris and set up a Bedouin tent in a garden near the Rue d'Elysée. Sarkozy was the first Western leader to welcome Gaddafi on a full state visit since ties were frozen in the 1980s over his status as a pariah state sponsor of terrorism.
But in 2011, Sarkozy put France at the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes against Gaddafi's forces, which had helped rebels overthrow the regime. Colonel Gaddafi was captured and killed by rebel forces in October 2011.
A documentary about this incident Person Knee Complained Lien (No One Understands) is an investigation story that opens in French cinemas on Wednesday.
If convicted of corruption charges, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison, along with former Elysée secretary-general and interior minister Claude Guéant, and Sarkozy's ally and interior minister Brice Ortofou. may be punished. All have denied wrongdoing.
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Also on trial is Eric Vers, a former budget minister in Sarkozy's government and now a member of parliament for Emmanuel Macron's centrist party. He denies any wrongdoing.
In March 2011, Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, told Euronews: “Sarkozy must return the funds he received from Libya for his campaign. We financed his campaign and we have the evidence…The first thing we are demanding is… is for this clown to return the money to the Libyan people.”
Anti-corruption organization Shaneth Mensou sherpaThe organization, which is a civil party in this case, stated as follows: “This case gives us a very clear view of what transnational corruption looks like today and its impact. What is less emphasized is the Because it concerns the embezzlement of public funds, the damage was caused to the general population, the Libyan people.
Mr. Sarkozy has already been convicted in two courts. France's highest court last month confirmed a verdict against him on charges of corruption and misappropriation of influence over illegal attempts to obtain favors from judges. He became the first former head of state to be ordered to wear an electronic tag for one year. He is challenging the European Court of Human Rights' decision.
In a separate trial, Sarkozy was found guilty of covering up illegal spending during the 2012 presidential election, which he lost to Socialist candidate François Hollande. He appealed.
Fabrice Alfie, investigative journalist for the website media partThe magazine, which reported the story in 2011, said the scale of the corruption charges in the Libya case would be a “shock” for French society. “The image of France as a whole is at stake,” he said. “At the diplomatic, economic, judicial and financial levels, the public will see that the former president and his team took compromising actions with a terrifying dictator.”
