A French court will rule on September 25th in the trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy on charges he accepted illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, reports FRANCE 24.
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied the charges.
He is already serving a one-year sentence with an electronic bracelet in a separate influence-peddling case.
Prosecutors argue that the former conservative leader and his aides devised a pact with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
They have requested the 70-year-old serve a seven-year prison sentence, pay a fine of 300,000 euros ($330,000) and be handed a five-year ban on holding office.
As the trial ended on Tuesday, Sarkozy described the prosecution's demand as "political and violent" in a "hateful media and political context".
"I am not here to do politics but to defend my honour and for the truth to be established," he said, refusing to comment further.
His trial closed soon after another Paris court sentenced far-right leader Marine Le Pen to a jail term and a five-year ban on running for office for embezzling European Union funds.
The move has thrown into doubt her bid to stand for president in 2027 and infuriated her supporters, who have criticised the judiciary.
Prosecutors allege that Sarkozy and senior figures pledged to help Gaddafi rehabilitate his international image in return for campaign financing.
The West has blamed Tripoli for bombing Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland and UTA Flight 772 over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
Sarkozy and 11 others have been on trial since January.
They include Sarkozy's former right-hand man, Claude Guéant, his then-head of campaign financing, Eric Woerth, and former minister Brice Hortefeux, all of whom deny the charges.
The prosecution's case is based on statements from seven former Libyan dignitaries, trips to Libya by Gueant and Hortefeux, financial transfers, and the notebooks of the former Libyan oil minister Shukri Ghanem, found drowned in the Danube in 2012.
Read more of this AFP report published by FRANCE 24.