Prosecutors demand seven-year sentence for Sarkozy
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French former president Nicolas Sarkozy leaving the courtroom after prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for him at an appeal trial on May 13, 2026.
PHOTO: AFP
- French prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for ex-President Sarkozy in an appeal trial for alleged Libyan campaign funding.
- Sarkozy denies seeking Libyan funds, claiming no money was received. He was jailed for 20 days in 2025 for a lower court conviction.
- A decision on Sarkozy's appeal is expected November 30. He could appeal again if convicted and already has two definitive convictions.
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Paris - French prosecutors on May 13 requested a seven-year prison sentence for former president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election.
Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing but in 2025 became modern France’s first former president to have gone to jail over the case, before he was released after 20 days pending his appeal trial.
Prosecutors had also requested seven years in the first trial over seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign, as well as corruption, illegal campaign financing, and receiving misappropriated Libyan public funds.
A lower court sentenced him to only five years, over seeking to acquire the funding, but acquitted him of the three other charges.
In the latest trial, prosecutors called the former president an “instigator” of the alleged pact to receive funding to boost his campaign in exchange for help to restore the Libyan leader’s international image after Tripoli was blamed for two plane bombings.
Sarkozy told the court there was “not a single cent of Libyan money” in the campaign that saw him elected in 2007.
A decision is expected on Nov 30.
If convicted, Sarkozy could then appeal to France’s highest court.
Sarkozy, 71, has faced a raft of accusations since leaving office, all of which he has denied.
He has received two definitive convictions in other cases – linked to overspending in his failed 2012 re-election bid and later trying to extract favours from a judge. AFP
