France’s finance prosecutor’s office has filed charges against ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy and twelve of his confidants in the affair about alleged election campaign millions from Libya. The 68-year-old is accused of embezzlement of public funds, corruption, a criminal organization and illegal election campaign financing, the public prosecutor said on Thursday in Paris. It is not yet clear if and when there will be a trial.
The French judiciary had already opened an investigation against the former head of state in 2018. He was suspected of corruption, illicit campaign finance and aiding and abetting in the misappropriation of Libyan public funds. In addition, in 2020 there was the accusation of a “criminal organization”. The background to the proceedings were indications that Sarkozy’s election campaign in 2007 was illegally funded by the regime of the then Libyan ruler Muammar al-Gaddafi.
A witness said in 2016 that in late 2006 or early 2007 he had brought several suitcases – prepared by the Libyan regime – totaling five million euros to the Paris Interior Ministry, which was then headed by Sarkozy. Sarkozy, who ruled in the Élysée Palace from 2007 to 2012, had already rejected the allegations at the time.
The twelve co-defendants include Sarkozy’s then budget minister Éric Woerth, his then office boss Claude Guéant and ex-minister Brice Hortefeux. For the affair-ridden Sarkozy, the Libya affair is not the only judicial process. Next Wednesday, the verdict will be handed down in an appeals process against Sarkozy, in which he was sentenced to three years in prison for bribery and trading in influence. He also appealed a conviction for illegal campaign finance in September 2021.