A new trial ordered for Nicolas Sarkozy, the most infamous in his eyes: two financial magistrates signed his referral to the criminal court to be tried on suspicion of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, which he denies en bloc. The former head of state (2007-2012) will appear for passive corruption, criminal association, illegal financing of an electoral campaign and concealment of embezzlement of Libyan public funds, according to a press release on Friday from financial prosecutor Jean-François Bohnert.
He will be summoned to the bench alongside twelve other people, including three former ministers: Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, members of Nicolas Sarkozy’s inner circle, as well as Eric Woerth, ex-treasurer of the suspicious presidential campaign. Nicolas Sarkozy, aged 68, has always vigorously contested the facts and multiplied the appeals against his questioning. “Subject” to possible appeals, the hearing will be held “between January 6, 2025 and April 10, 2025” before the 32nd chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, according to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
“Corruption Pact”
The two financial magistrates generally followed the requisitions of the PNF who had mentioned mid-May “the endorsement” and the “perfect knowledge of the facts” of Nicolas Sarkozy as to the alleged actions. In their 557-page order signed Thursday, of which AFP was aware, they evoke ten years of sprawling investigation entrusted to the Anti-Corruption Office (Oclciff) and which suffered from “few human resources”, from the “absence of political will in France (regardless of the period) to make these facts transparent”, as well as “manipulations” and other “destabilizes”.
They underline that if “in the economic and financial files, there is no evidence”, “it appears that a pact of corruption was tied between Nicolas Sarkozy and Muammar Gaddafi for the purposes of financing the election of the first “. For the magistrates, the idea of a “machination intended to harm Nicolas Sarkozy”, thesis defended by the latter, “to punish him for having led the coalition against the regime of Muammar Gaddafi” in 2011 “does not resist to analysis”.
Two businessmen are at the heart of the case: the Franco-Lebanese Ziad Takieddine, on the run in Lebanon and who should therefore be the main absentee from the hearing, and the Franco-Algerian Alexandre Djouhri, suspected of having served as intermediaries. The judicial investigation had been opened in April 2013 on the basis of accusations by Libyan dignitaries, Ziad Takieddine and the publication by Mediapart, between the two rounds of the 2012 presidential election, of a document supposed to prove that this campaign had benefited from Libyan funds, contested by Nicolas Sarkozy.
Considerations
Abundant testimonies sometimes prior to 2011, notes from the secret services of Tripoli, “atypical and troubled” fund movements, materialization of a certain number of counterparties… The magistrates gathered a sum of disturbing clues to support the thesis of funds Libyans who would have benefited the campaign of the former president or his entourage. “You have neither proof of arrival nor proof of exit concerning the money (…) Where is the money?”, had defended himself at the end of 2020 the ex-head of the State, during an interrogation.
The trial promises a bitter battle. Claude Guéant “has always argued that no offense could be attributed to him (…), which he will demonstrate” during the hearing, his counsel, Me Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, reacted on Friday. “We are talking about millions of Gaddafi but we cannot make this relationship with 30,000 euros collected and distributed after the campaign”, also launched Eric Woerth’s lawyer, Me Jean-Yves Le Borgne.
Side civil parties, it is satisfaction. Me Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for the anti-corruption association Sherpa, praised “extremely meticulous work by the investigating court” which “opens the way to a totally historic trial targeting a former head of state. It is a strong signal for all litigants who deplore the existence of a two-speed justice”. The main file has been accompanied since mid-2021 by an investigation into a possible attempted bribery by Ziad Takieddine, who temporarily withdrew his charges against Nicolas Sarkozy at the end of 2020.
The head of state, who has just published a new book of memoirs, was heard in mid-June as a suspect on these suspicions, and his home was searched. Already sentenced to prison, on appeal in the so-called “wiretapping” case (he appealed) and at first instance in the Bygmalion case (he will be retried in November), Nicolas Sarkozy will therefore have to face a third criminal record.
Asked about his legal affairs on Wednesday on TF1, Nicolas Sarkozy had declared: “I have nothing to reproach myself for, I did not embezzle a penny”.