Ex-French President Sarkozy Faces Another Corruption Trial

Corruption is Everywhere - Ex French President

By Sommer Brokaw  

UPI -- A judge Thursday ordered former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to stand trial for allegedly trying to illegally obtain information from a judge.

A French judicial official said Sarkozy, who led the country from 2007 to 2012, must go to trial along with one of his lawyers and a former magistrate on charges of active corruption and influence peddling.

At issue is Sarkozy's calls to a senior judge who was investigating separate allegations of illegal campaign funding in his 2007 presidential bid.

Each of the three parties ordered to face trial have denied the allegations. Sarkozy's lawyers announced he will appeal the order. The court scheduled an appeal hearing for June 25, Sarkozy's lawyers said in a statement to the Telegraph..

"Nicolas Sarkozy will ... calmly wait for the result of the motion for a declaration of invalidity. He does not doubt that once again the truth will triumph," the statement said.

If his appeal is denied, he will be the first former French president to stand trial for active corruption while in office, the Telegraph reported. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years, and the influence peddling charge has a maximum sentence of five years. Each involve fines.

The trial order adds to Sarkozy's legal battles. Police detained him earlier this month and questioned him over separate allegations of illegal campaign funding from former Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in his 2007 presidential election bid.

He also faces allegations of illegal campaign funding in his 2012 re-election bid in a separate trial.

Sarkozy denies the allegations.

Sarkozy Indicted Over Libyan Financing of 2007 Election Campaign – Reports

Corruption is Everywhere - French Presidential Elections

© FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is reportedly under formal investigation over allegations that his 2007 election campaign received funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

According to a source in the judiciary, Sarkozy is being investigated for illicit campaign financing, misappropriation of Libyan public funds and passive corruption, Reuters reports. According to Le Monde, several former senior figures in the Gaddafi regime have provided new evidence confirming the allegations of illicit financing.

Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, denies the allegations. The former French president faced two days of questioning before being released from judicial detention on Wednesday afternoon.

The allegations against Sarkozy emerged in 2012 and a judicial inquiry was launched in 2013. In November 2016, middleman Ziad Takieddine said he transported €5 million from Tripoli to Paris in late 2006 and early 2007.

Takieddine’s statements corroborated remarks made by the former director of military intelligence of the Gaddafi regime, Abdallah Senoussi, in his evidence to the National Transitional Council of Libya, the de facto Libyan government during the country’s civil war.

Ex-French President Sarkozy in Police Custody Over ‘Libyan Aid’ for His 2007 Campaign

Corruption is Everywhere - French Presidential elections

Nicolas Sarkozy © Lionel Bonaventure / AFP

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been placed in police custody for questioning over alleged Libyan aid to help fund his 2007 presidential election campaign, Reuters and local media report citing judicial sources.

According to Le Monde, this is the first time Sarkozy, 63, has been questioned in relation to the investigation, which was launched in April 2013. Sarkozy was placed in police custody in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris. His detention could last up to 48 hours, L’Obs reported.

In 2014, France’s second-largest public television channel, France-3, made waves after airing an audio excerpt from an interview with Muammar Gaddafi. The late Libyan leader claimed that he financed Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidential campaign in 2007.

“It’s me who made him president,” Gaddafi said in an interview recorded in 2011. Gaddafi was speaking in Tripoli in mid-March, just a few days before the first Western strikes that led to his downfall and killing by militias in October, 2011. 

I'm sure that was just a coincidence!!!?? At any rate, it doesn't seem to have been a very good investment for Gadaffi.

Claims that Sarkozy allegedly received backing from Gaddafi first surfaced in 2012, when Mediapart news agency accused him of accepting €50 million from the Libyan leader to fund his 2007 campaign.

The agency published a statement signed by former Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa asserting that the claim was true. Sarkozy accused the organization of slander, dismissing the claims as “grotesque.”

The former president’s alleged ties with Gaddafi came under the spotlight again in November 2016. In an interview with Mediapart, Ziad Takieddine, the man who introduced Nicolas Sarkozy to Muammar Gaddafi, confessed to having brought several suitcases containing €5 million prepared for the Libyan regime to the Ministry of the Interior in late 2006 and early 2007.

“It was a case like that. It opened like this. And the money was inside,” Takieddine said in a film released by Mediapart.