Overview
- Prosecutors in Paris repeated their request on Wednesday for a seven-year prison term for Nicolas Sarkozy in the appeal over alleged Libyan campaign cash.
- They also asked the court to levy a €300,000 fine and strip him of the right to stand for election for five years.
- The prosecution seeks convictions on all counts, alleging a pact with Muammar Gaddafi that tied Libyan funds to efforts to lift an arrest warrant for intelligence chief Abdallah Senoussi.
- Sarkozy denies any Libyan money entered his 2007 campaign or that he was under Gaddafi’s influence, while prosecutors also requested six years for his former chief of staff, Claude Guéant.
- Hearings run through late May with a ruling due in November, and ten other defendants are on trial, including former ministers Éric Woerth and Brice Hortefeux, after a 2015 judgment that first found Sarkozy guilty of forming a criminal association.