PARIS, Jan 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, 
already convicted twice in separate cases since leaving office, on Monday 
goes on trial charged with accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged 
pact with the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.

The career of Sarkozy has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 
2012 presidential election. But he remains an influential figure for many on 
the right and is also known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.

The fiercely ambitious and energetic politician, 69, who is married to the 
model and singer Carla Bruni and while in power from 2007-2012 liked to be 
known as the "hyper-president", has been convicted in two cases, charged in 
another and is being investigated in connection with two more.

Sarkozy will be in the dock at the Paris court barely half a month after 
France's top appeals court on December 18 rejected his appeal against a one 
year prison sentence for influence peddling, which he is to serve by wearing 
an electronic bracelet rather than in jail.

The latest trial is the result of a decade of investigations into accusations 
that Sarkozy accepted illegal campaign financing -- reportedly amounting to 
some 50 million euros -- from Kadhafi to help his victorious 2007 election 
campaign.

In exchange, it is alleged, Sarkozy and senior figures pledged to help 
Kadhafi rehabilitate his international image after Tripoli was blamed for 
bombing attacks on Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland and 
UTA Flight 772 in 1989 that killed hundreds of passengers.

Sarkozy has denounced the accusations as part of a conspiracy against him, 
insisting that he never received any financing for the campaign from Kadhafi 
and that there is no evidence of any such transfer.

- 'He will fight' -

At a time when many Western countries were courting Kadhafi for energy deals 
as the maverick dictator sought to emerge from decades of international 
isolation, the Libyan leader in December 2007 visited Paris, famously 
installing his tent in the centre of the city.

But France then backed the UN-sanctioned military action that helped in 2011 
oust Kadhafi, who was then killed by rebels. Sarkozy has said allegations 
from former members of Kadhafi's inner circle over the alleged campaign 
financing are motivated by revenge.

If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison under the charges of 
concealing embezzlement of public funds and illegal campaign financing. The 
trial is due to last until April 10.

Sarkozy "is awaiting these four months of hearings with determination. He 
will fight the artificial construction dreamed up by the prosecution. There 
was no Libyan financing of the campaign," said his lawyer Christophe Ingrain. 

Among 12 others facing trial over the alleged Libyan financing are 
heavyweights such as Sarkozy's former right-hand man, Claude Gueant, his 
then-head of campaign financing, Eric Woerth, and former minister Brice 
Hortefeux.

"Claude Gueant will demonstrate that after more than ten years of 
investigation, none of the offences he is accused of have been proven," said 
his lawyer Philippe Bouchez El Ghozi, denouncing the cases as amounting to 
"assertions, hypotheses and other approximations."

- Witness tampering charges -

For the prosecution, the pact started in 2005 when Kadhafi and Sarkozy, then 
interior minister, met in Tripoli for a meeting ostensibly devoted to 
fighting illegal migration. But Sarkozy's defence counters that no trace of 
the illegal financing was ever found in the campaign coffers.

The scandal erupted in April 2012, while Sarkozy was in the throes of his re-
election campaign, when the Mediapart website published a bombshell article 
based on a document purportedly from December 2006 it said showed a former 
Libyan official evoking an agreement over the campaign financing.

Sarkozy has long contended that the document is not genuine.

An embittered Sarkozy would later narrowly lose the second round of the 
election to Socialist Francois Hollande.

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, a key figure in the case, had 
claimed several times that he helped deliver up to five million euros ($5.4 
million at current rates) in cash from Kadhafi to Sarkozy and his chief of 
staff in 2006 and 2007.

But in 2020, Takieddine suddenly retracted his incriminating statement, 
raising suspicions that Sarkozy and close allies may have paid the witness to 
change his mind.

In a further twist, Sarkozy was charged in October 2023 with illegal witness 
tampering while Carla Bruni was last year charged with hiding evidence in the 
same case.

Sarkozy's second conviction, in another campaign financing case, was 
confirmed last year by a Paris appeals court which ruled he should serve six 
months in prison, with another six months suspended. This verdict can still 
go to a higher domestic appeals court.