Back to the court of appeal for Nicolas Sarkozy, titled Le Soir. The appeal trial of the former head of state, in the case of Libyan financing presumed for the 2007 presidential campaign, opens on Monday, March 16 in Paris. In September, he was found guilty of conspiracy and sentenced to five years in prison with immediate enforcement by the criminal court of the capital, due to “corruption at the highest level” of “exceptional seriousness,” a judgment that “had the effect of an earthquake,” recalls the Belgian newspaper.
In this political-finance saga that began in 2011, the former right-wing champion is accused of wanting to finance his victorious 2007 presidential campaign with secret funds from the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which he has vigorously denied.
In January, Marine Le Pen also appeared before the Paris Court of Appeal in the case of FN euro-deputies’ assistants. “A tangle of things, but not quite the same issue,” notes the Brussels newspaper. If the leader of the National Rally (RN) fears for her eligibility — she should be clarified before the summer — for Nicolas Sarkozy, “it’s another guillotine that awaits him.” At 71 years old, it is no longer his political future that concerns him but his freedom, according to Le Soir.
The former president must convince the judges of his innocence “if he wants to avoid going back to prison.” In the fall, he spent twenty days in detention at La Santé prison before appealing and being released, again presumed innocent. A brief incarceration that he recounted “in a successful book,” which provided him with “the opportunity for a book signing tour across France,” continues the Belgian newspaper.
Nine other defendants will be retried with the former head of state during this trial, which is expected to continue until June 3. If he is again sentenced to a firm prison term, Nicolas Sarkozy “would only have to appeal to the Court of Cassation, which will only rule on possible procedural irregularities,” warns Le Soir.
