Nicolas Sarkozy's risky legal defence strategy – abandoning his loyal aides
Nicolas Sarkozy and some of his former ministers go on trial this Monday over claims that the former French president's successful 2007 election campaign was funded by the Libyan regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. In this, as in other criminal cases in which the former head of state has been implicated, his approach has been to disclaim any personal knowledge of events, even to the point of throwing his closest associates under the bus. In the current case the ex-head of state has had harsh words for his most loyal lieutenants, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant. “I had no way of knowing what the reality of their lives was,” he told judges investigating the affair. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.
InIn all the criminal investigations involving Nicolas Sarkozy, one recurring pattern emerges, like an ostinato in music: when cornered, the former president abandons his own. This scene has played out repeatedly in recent years in judges’ chambers and in courtrooms, to varying degrees but with unwavering consistency.
