PARIS (AP) — France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose conviction in a corruption case was declared final Wednesday by France’s highest court, has been involved in a series of legal proceedings in recent years.
Another trial will begin next month over Libya’s alleged financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy, 69, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, has denied all allegations. In 2017 he retired from active politics.
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Here’s a look at lawsuits he’s involved in.
Wiretapping scandal
France’s Court of Cassation on Wednesday upheld an appeals court ruling that found Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while head of state.
Sarkozy has been sentenced to a year in prison but is expected to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet, as required by French law.
He said he would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Sarkozy was first found guilty by a Paris court in 2021, a verdict upheld by an appeals court in 2023, for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was involved.
Alleged financing of Libya
Sarkozy and 12 others will go on trial in January 2025 on charges that his 2007 presidential campaign received millions in illegal financing from the government of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
Sarkozy has been under investigation in this case since 2013. He is accused of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, embezzlement of Libyan public funds and criminal association.
Investigators were looking into claims that Gadhafi’s government secretly gave Sarkozy 50 million euros ($52.3 million) for his winning 2007 campaign. The amount is said to be more than double the then legal campaign finance limit and would violate the French rules against foreign campaign financing.
The investigation gained traction when French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told news site Mediapart in 2016 that he had delivered suitcases from Libya containing 5 million euros in cash to Sarkozy and his former chief of staff. Takieddine later withdrew the accusation and Sarkozy tried to close the investigation.
After Sarkozy became president in 2007, he welcomed Gadhafi to France with great honors later that year. Sarkozy then placed France at the forefront of NATO-led airstrikes that helped rebel fighters overthrow Gadhafi’s government in 2011.
Accusations of witness tampering
French investigating judges filed preliminary charges against Sarkozy last year over his alleged involvement in an attempt to mislead magistrates into acquitting him in the Libya financing case.
Financial prosecutors said Sarkozy is suspected of “profiting from corruptly influencing a witness” – Takieddine – who accused him of receiving illegal campaign financing from Libya.
Sarkozy’s wife, former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was remanded in custody in July this year for alleged involvement in attempts to pressure Takieddine. Bruni-Sarkozy was placed under judicial supervision, including a ban on contact with anyone involved in the proceedings, except her husband.
Convicted of illegal campaign financing
In February this year, an appeals court in Paris upheld a guilty verdict against the former president for illegal campaign financing during his failed re-election bid in 2012. Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison, with six months suspended.
Sarkozy is accused of spending almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros on the re-election bid he lost to Socialist François Hollande.
Lawyers for Sarkozy, who has denied all allegations, have appealed the verdict in that case to the Court of Cassation.
