Nicolas Sarkozy has been declared "guilty" of receiving money from Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 Élysée campaign. The verdict finds the former president "guilty" of "illicit association," although partially absolving him of charges of "embezzlement of public funds" and "passive corruption."
This is the third time the former president has been indicted for corruption, illegal financing, or influence peddling. Sarkozy, 70, lost the Legion of Honor earlier this year (a "dishonor" shared with collaborator Philippe Pétain) due to his ongoing legal issues.
The former president arrived at the Paris courts on Thursday accompanied by his wife, Carla Bruni, who supported him throughout the process. The case was heard on March 27, just days before far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced to five years of disqualification from public office for embezzlement.
Sarkozy himself reacted angrily to "the indignity of the requested sentence" of seven years in prison and a fine of 300,000 euros, following the testimony of up to 15 Libyan officials who claimed to have given the then-presidential candidate up to six million euros for his campaign.
The final act of Sarkozy's trial was preceded by the death of one of the main witnesses, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, 48 hours earlier, for unspecified reasons. Takieddine once stated that he acted as a courier between Gaddafi and Sarkozy's Chief of Staff between 2006 and 2007, although he later retracted his statement.
Legal battles have been a constant shadow over Nicolas Sarkozy for his activities before, during, and after his time at the Élysée Palace from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign (which he lost to François Hollande). That same year, he was also sentenced to three years for influence peddling and attempting to bribe a judge to obtain confidential information about an investigation against him.
The "mitigated" prison sentence allowed him to avoid jail, but Sarkozy made history in 2025 as the first president subject to house arrest and to wear an electronic bracelet (on his ankle) to be monitored 24 hours a day.
Despite all his legal troubles, Sarkozy remains a reference in The Republicans, the conservative party led by outgoing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. Sarkozy, who until this year maintained regular contact with Emmanuel Macron, distanced himself after losing the Legion of Honor and strongly criticized the current president for his role in the country's political crisis.