(6 Jan 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paris, France – 6 January 2025
1. Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arriving at courthouse, shaking hands with police officers, walking into courtroom
STORYLINE:
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at a Paris courthouse on Monday for the start of his trial over alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign by the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The Libyan case, the biggest and possibly most shocking of several scandals involving Sarkozy, is scheduled to run until April 10, with a verdict expected at a later date.
Sarkozy, 69, faces charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzlement of public funds and criminal association, punished by up to 10 years in prison. Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has denied any wrongdoing.
The trial involves 11 other defendants, including three former ministers. Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, accused of having played the role of intermediary, has fled in Lebanon and is not expected to appear at the Paris court.
Sarkozy is looking forward to the hearings “with determination,” his lawyer Christophe Ingrain said in a statement.
“There is no Libyan financing of the campaign,” the statement said. “We want to believe the court will have the courage to examine the facts objectively, without being guided by the nebulous theory that poisoned the investigation.”
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