US EditionFormer French President Sarkozy's appeal against conspiracy conviction opens
Nicolas Sarkozy appeals a five-year sentence over alleged 2007 campaign financing from Libya; retrial examines evidence against him and nine co-defendants until June 3.
- On March 16, 2026, Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy returned to the Paris Appeal Court for an appeal hearing scheduled until June 3, re-examining evidence with nine co-defendants including three former ministers.
- Sarkozy is appealing a September conviction that found him guilty of criminal conspiracy linked to alleged Libyan funding of his 2007 presidential campaign and was sentenced to five years, but he insists he is innocent and calls the accusations politically motivated.
- Prosecutors say aides acting in Sarkozy's name struck a 2005 deal with Gaddafi; he was jailed in October at La Santé for 20 days before release under judicial supervision.
- The retrial means Sarkozy is again presumed innocent as the appeal proceeds, and a Court of Cassation ruling upheld a conviction requiring six months under house arrest with an electronic ankle tag not yet enforced.
- The case, the first time a modern French president was sentenced to prison, has wider implications for rule-of-law and Sarkozy's influence in conservative politics, rights groups say.
95 Articles
95 Articles
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy back in court to appeal corruption conviction
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy returned to court yesterday for an appeal hearing in Paris over his conviction linked to the alleged illegal campaign financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by Libya.
It is practically the last cartridge of Nicolas Sarkozy to save his honor. On Monday the court in Paris began the trial on appeal of the Libyan plot, for which the magistrates had sentenced in September the former president of France (2007-12) to five years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. Then, they asked for the immediate application of that penalty, which led to the former leader of the traditional right hand to spend 20 days behind bar…
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy returned to court this Monday at the appeal trial on the case of the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by the Libyan regime of the late Muamar Gaddafi. Sarkozy was convicted in this case in September 2025 to five years in prison for an offence of unlawful association, with a firm penalty, forcing him to spend 20 days in prison, something unheard of in a former President of the Republic. The co…
The former President of the Republic, already incarcerated and then released under judicial supervision, appears again in the case of financing his 2007 campaign Freedom or prison for Nicolas
Without Claude Guéant, sick, opens the Libyan trial on appeal. Nicolas Sarkozy, lines drawn, settles for three months in the front row before the Court. Opposite him, a magistrate with a grip.
The editorial of "Liberation" summarizes the main news of the day of Monday, 16 March.
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