Saturday, March 29, 2025
Paris, Sept 25, 2025 – In a historic ruling, a Paris court has sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison for allegedly receiving illegal campaign funds from the regime of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The court found Sarkozy guilty of conspiring to obtain secret Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential campaign in exchange for diplomatic and political favors. Judges said the arrangement amounted to a “corrupt pact” with Gaddafi’s government between 2005 and 2007.
Although Sarkozy was acquitted of three other charges – passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and misuse of public funds – the five-year sentence is set to stand even if he appeals. The exact date for his imprisonment will be determined later.
Two of Sarkozy’s closest allies, Claude Guéant (former minister) and Brice Hortefeux, were also convicted for their roles in the scheme.
The case dates back to 2007, when French media and Libyan officials alleged that millions of euros were secretly funneled from Gaddafi’s regime into Sarkozy’s campaign. In 2011, Gaddafi himself and a Libyan news agency claimed Libya had covertly bankrolled Sarkozy’s victory bid.
According to prosecutors, Sarkozy’s camp promised Libya diplomatic recognition, legal assistance, and trade cooperation in return for financial backing. Reports also suggest Sarkozy sought to improve Gaddafi’s tarnished international image, which had suffered due to decades of authoritarian rule, human rights abuses, and terrorist incidents such as the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.
In December 2007, shortly after his election win, Sarkozy invited Gaddafi to Paris on a controversial state visit. The Libyan leader pitched his traditional Bedouin tent in the gardens of the Élysée Palace, symbolizing the thaw in Franco-Libyan relations at the time.
Sarkozy, now 70, has consistently denied wrongdoing and called the case a political witch hunt. His legal team announced plans to appeal the ruling, but under French law, the conviction requires him to begin serving his sentence.
This is not Sarkozy’s first brush with the courts – he was previously convicted in 2021 in a separate corruption case and handed a three-year sentence, including one year in prison.
The latest verdict marks another dramatic fall from grace for the once-powerful French leader, raising new questions about political financing and corruption in France.
