Nicolas Sarkozy, the French former president, undermined his country’s honour and dignity to conclude a corrupt deal with Colonel Gaddafi, the late Libyan dictator, a French court has been told, reports The Times.
Prosecutors have told Paris criminal court that Sarkozy, now 70, sacrificed his “probity, honesty and rectitude” by accepting millions of euros in illegal campaign donations from Gaddafi before the 2007 presidential election, which Sarkozy won to become head of state.
Driven by a devouring ambition, the prosecutors said, Sarkozy undermined not only French sovereignty but his country’s image in the world.
They were summing up at a trial in which Sarkozy faced allegations of corruption, receiving the proceeds of embezzled public funds and belonging to a criminal gang. Sarkozy, a right-winger who styled himself as a tough leader during his presidential term between 2007 and 2012, faces a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a fine of €375,000 if found guilty.
Claude Guéant, 80, Sarkozy’s former chief of staff, and Brice Hortefeux, 66, his former interior minister, are among the defendants in the dock with Sarkozy. Like him, they deny wrongdoing.