France’s ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy is found GUILTY of criminal conspiracy as shocked wife Carla Bruni looks on in court – and he now faces seven years in prison
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of a penalty conspiracy at a hearing on the allegation of illegal financing by the Libyan dictator Maammar Gadhafi government of the 2007 presidential campaign.
70 -year -old Sarkozy was not found guilty of receiving an illegal campaign financing from Gaddafi, and was acquitted of all other charges, including passive corruption.
Now he is sentenced to up to seven years of imprisonment for crimes and his sentence is later realized today.
Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost the proposal to be re -elected in 2012, rejected all mistakes at a three -month hearing, including 11 common arts, including three former ministers.
Sarkozy entered a courtroom full of journalists and folk members accompanied by his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Sarkozy sat at the front row of the defendants’ seats. All three adults were in the room.
Although there are many legal scandals that blur the presidential heritage, Sarkozy continues to be an effective figure in France and right-wing politics thanks to her marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.
Sarkozy may appeal the criminal decision to suspend the sentence waiting for the appeal. Prosecutors sentenced them to seven years of imprisonment.
The accusations follow the roots until 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi say that the Libyan state secretly took millions of euros in the 2007 campaign of Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In 2012, the French investigation output MediaPart, 50 million-Euro financing agreement referring to a Libyan intelligence grade, said they said. Sarkozy condemned the document as forgery and filed a slander case.
His wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (in the picture, right) accompanied by Sarkozy (in the picture, on the left), entered a courtroom full of journalists and members of the people
French peace judges later said that the grade looked authentic, but there was no final evidence of a completed transaction in the three -month Paris case.
Inspectors also worked as the Minister of Interior between 2005 and 2007, including the Chief of the Personnel, while examining a series of trips to Libya by people close to Sarkozy.
In 2016, Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lübneli businessman, gave MediaPart to the French Ministry of Interior under the direction of Sarkozy from Tripoli. Then he pulled his statement back.
This return is now the focus of a separate investigation into a possible witness tampering. Both Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy were given preliminary accusations because they were involved in efforts against Takieddine. This case has not yet been tried.
Lawyer Elise Arfi said that one of the defendants Takieddine died in Beirut on Tuesday. He was 75 years old. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the hearing.
Sarkozy was tried on passive corruption charges, illegal campaign financing, hiding public funds to embezzlement and Punishment Association. Prosecutors claimed that Sarkozy had known what they described as ‘corruption agreement’ with the Gadhafi government.
Libya’s long -term dictator was overthrown and killed in an uprising in 2011 and ended the four -year administration of the North African country.
In the 2000s, when Gadhafi tried to restore diplomatic ties with the West with the West, he shed light on France’s rear channel talks. Before that, Libya was accepted as a Pariah State.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy with the other defendants during the hearing of the decision after taking a break gestures
Sarkozy continues to be an effective figure in France and right-wing politics thanks to her marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy
French politician and former Secretary General of the Elysee Palace Claude Gueant comes for a decision at the hearing with former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other defendants
Sarkozy rejected the allegations that rely on motivated and fake evidence politically
Sarkozy rejected allegations politically motivated and dependent on false evidence. During the hearing, he said he was staged by ‘liars and fraudsters’ including ‘gadhafi clan’.
Campaign financing allegations, as the president of France for the abolition of Gadhafi – as a retaliation for the call.
Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders in Libya in 2011, when pro -democracy protests sweep the Arab world.
What reliability can be given to these statements, which are marked with revenge seal? ‘Sarkozy asked in comments during the trial.
In June, Sarkozy was removed from the Legion of Honor Medal, the highest prize in France after his conviction in a separate case.
Previously, he was found guilty of corruption and was sold in 2014 because he had bribed a peace judgment.
Sarkozy was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year. In May, he was released in May, which allowed him to release an electronic label after wearing a little more than three months.
In another case, Sarkozy was sentenced to an illegal campaign financing in the last year’s failed 2012 re -election proposal. He was accused of spending almost twice the maximum legal amount and was sentenced to six months in prison.
Sarkozy rejected the allegations. He appealed this decision to the highest Cassation court and this appeal is on waiting
