Sarkozy-Gaddafi election funding case: an historic trial for an affair of state
On January 6th Nicolas Sarkozy took centre stage at an historic trial in Paris. He and three former ministers face charges over claims that the former president's successful 2007 election campaign was part-funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. And that the North African country – whose leader was one of the most notorious dictators on the planet – received favours in exchange. The marathon trial, unprecedented in both the nature of the charges and the profiles of the defendants, who number 13 in all, is expected to last until April 10th. It marks the culmination of a ten-year judicial investigation that, in the words of the judges carrying out the probe, has “revealed both payments and reciprocal benefits”. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report on the background to this momentous court case.
ForFor the third time in his life the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, already convicted of corruption in the so-called Bismuth phonetapping case and found guilty at both first instance and on appeal for illegal campaign financing in the so-called Bygmalion affair, is set to enter a courtroom at Paris's Judicial Court to stand trial in a case involving dishonesty.
