Blitz Bureau
THE trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accused of taking millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign, began on January 6 in Paris.
In exchange, the prosecution alleges Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries, according to BBC. Sarkozy, 69, was the president of France from 2007 to 2012.
He has always denied the charges, saying they were brought against him by people with motivations to bring him down.
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding.
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine – who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East – said he had written proof that Sarkozy’s campaign bid was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president, said the news agency.
Twelve other people – accused of devising the pact with Gaddafi – are standing trial along Sarkozy. They all deny the charges.
Sarkozy’s wife, Italian-born former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud, both of which she denies.
Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.
