The Paris criminal court delivered a highly anticipated verdict on Thursday in the case of suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign. Nicolas Sarkozy was cleared of corruption charges, concealment of embezzlement of Libyan public funds, and illegal campaign financing, but was found guilty of criminal association for allowing his “close associates” to solicit the Libyan government for financial support.
The presiding judge, Nathalie Gavarino, stated that the judicial process had not demonstrated that the “money that came from Libya” had ultimately been used to secretly finance Nicolas Sarkozy’s victorious 2007 campaign. “For the court, the material elements of the corruption offense are not established,” she declared, justifying the former president’s acquittal on this charge.
However, Ms. Gavarino emphasized that “as a minister, president of the UMP,” Nicolas Sarkozy had “allowed his close collaborators and political supporters – over whom he had authority and who acted on his behalf – to solicit the Libyan authorities to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support” for the presidential campaign. The judges did not follow the recommendations of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which had portrayed Nicolas Sarkozy as the beneficiary of covert financing from Libya. The former head of state therefore escapes the charges of passive corruption and illegal campaign financing, charges that had heavily weighed on his image in recent years.
The sentence and detailed motivations will be known later. The reading of the judgment, which is nearly 400 pages long, is expected to last several hours. While Nicolas Sarkozy avoids the bulk of the accusations, several of his former collaborators have been heavily convicted. Claude Guéant, his former campaign director, was found guilty of criminal association, passive corruption, passive influence peddling, forgery and use of forged documents, as well as aggravated money laundering. Former minister Brice Hortefeux was also found guilty of criminal association. He was also prosecuted for complicity in illegal campaign financing. However, three defendants were acquitted: businessman Ahmed Salem Bugshan, Édouard Ullmo, and former minister Éric Woerth.
