Former French President Sarkozy found guilty on key charge, acquitted of
others in Libya case
[September 25, 2025]
By SYLVIE CORBET
PARIS (AP) — A Paris court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy
guilty on a key charge but acquitted him on three others Thursday in his
trial for the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential
campaign with money from the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar
Gadhafi.
The court is still detailing its ruling and hasn’t immediately sentenced
the 70-year-old Sarkozy. That step would come later in the court
proceedings Thursday. Sarkozy can appeal the guilty verdict, which would
suspend any sentence pending the appeal.
The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a scheme from
2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya in exchange
for diplomatic favors. But it cleared him of three other charges --
including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment
of the embezzlement of public funds.
Still, criminal association is a serious charge, carrying a potential
sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
The court also found two of Sarkozy’s closest associates when he was
president -- former ministers Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux — guilty
of criminal association but likewise acquitted them of some other
charges.
Overall, the verdicts appeared to suggest that the court believed that
the men conspired together to seek Libyan funding for Sarkozy’s 2007
campaign but that judges weren’t convinced that the conservative leader
himself was guilty of then putting the scheme in place.
Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, the singer and model Carla
Bruni-Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom, which was also filled with
reporters and members of the public. Sarkozy sat in the front row of the
defendant’s seats. His three adult sons were also in the room.
Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost his bid for reelection in
2012, denied all wrongdoing during a three-month trial earlier this year
that also involved 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.
Despite multiple legal scandals that have clouded his presidential
legacy, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in right-wing politics in
France and in entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to
Bruni-Sarkozy.
Alleged Libya financing
The accusations trace their roots to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and
Gadhafi himself said the Libyan state had secretly funneled millions of
euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In 2012, the French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it
said was a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro
funding agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as a forgery and sued
for defamation.
French magistrates later said that the memo appeared to be authentic,
though no conclusive evidence of a completed transaction was presented
at the three-month Paris trial.
Investigators also looked into a series of trips to Libya made by people
close to Sarkozy when he served as interior minister from 2005 and 2007,
including his chief of staff.
In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that
he had delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French
Interior Ministry under Sarkozy. He later retracted his statement.
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That reversal is now the focus of a separate investigation into
possible witness tampering. Both Sarkozy and his wife were handed
preliminary charges for involvement in alleged efforts to pressure
Takieddine. That case has not gone to trial yet.
Takieddine, who was one of the co-defendants, died on Tuesday in
Beirut. He was 75. He had fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend
the trial.
Prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy had knowingly benefited from what
they described as a “corruption pact” with Gadhafi’s government.
Libya’s longtime dictator was toppled and killed in an uprising in
2011, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country.
Sarkozy denounced a ‘plot’
The trial shed light on France’s back-channel talks with Libya in
the 2000s, when Gadhafi was seeking to restore diplomatic ties with
the West. Before that, Libya was considered a pariah state.
Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as politically motivated and
reliant on forged evidence. During the trial, he denounced a “plot”
he said was staged by “liars and crooks” including the “Gadhafi
clan.”
He suggested that the allegations of illegal campaign financing were
retaliation for his call — as France’s president — for Gadhafi’s
removal.
Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders to push for military
intervention in Libya in 2011, when Arab Spring pro-democracy
protests swept the Arab world.
“What credibility can be given to such statements marked by the seal
of vengeance?” Sarkozy asked in comments during the trial.
Stripped of the Legion of Honor
In June, Sarkozy was stripped of his Legion of Honor medal —
France’s highest award — after his conviction in a separate case.
Earlier, he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling
for trying to bribe a magistrate in 2014 in exchange for information
about a legal case in which he was implicated.
Sarkozy was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for
one year. He was granted a conditional release in May due to his
age, which allowed him to remove the electronic tag after he wore it
for just over three months.
In another case, Sarkozy was convicted last year of illegal campaign
financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid. He was accused of
having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount and was sentenced
to a year in prison, of which six months were suspended.
Sarkozy has denied the allegations. He has appealed that verdict to
the highest Court of Cassation, and that appeal is pending
___
Associated Press journalist John Leicester contributed.
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