Nicolas Sarkozy back in court for fresh trial over alleged Libya funding

Nicolas Sarkozy is due to appear at the Paris court of appeal to face a fresh trial over allegations he conspired to receive illegal election campaign funding from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.The former rightwing French president, who was in office between 2007 and 2012, denies any wrongdoing.Last year, Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy over the alleged scheme to obtain election campaign funds from Gaddafi’s regime. He became the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to go behind bars.After 20 days in a Paris jail, which he described as “gruelling” and a “nightmare”, Sarkozy was released from prison in November, pending his appeal, and published a book about his time inside. He was in solitary confinement for his own security, in an individual cell of about 9 sq metres with his own shower and toilet.At the trial last year, the state prosecution accused Sarkozy of making a deal, as interior minister in 2005, with Gaddafi to obtain campaign financing for his successful 2007 presidential bid in exchange for supporting the then-isolated Libyan government on the international stage.Last year, Sarkozy was found guilty of one count of criminal conspiracy over the scheme to obtain election funds from Libya. He was acquitted of three other charges of corruption, misuse of Libyan public funds and illegal election campaign funding.Sarkozy will be tried again on all four counts at the fresh trial on appeal which starts on Monday after he appealed against his conviction and the state prosecutor appealed against the acquittals. If convicted, Sarkozy, 71, faces up to 10 years in prison.In the first trial last year, the court heard that in return for the money for Sarkozy’s campaign, the Libyan regime requested diplomatic, legal and business favours, and it was understood that Sarkozy would rehabilitate Gaddafi’s international image. The autocratic Libyan leader, whose 41-year rule was marked by human rights abuses, had been isolated internationally over his regime’s connection to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988.Prosecutors accused members of Sarkozy’s entourage of meeting members of Gaddafi’s regime in Libya in 2005.Soon after becoming president in 2007, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader for a lengthy state visit to Paris during which he set up his Bedouin tent in gardens near the Élysée Palace.In 2011, Sarkozy put France at the forefront of Nato-led airstrikes against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime. Gaddafi was captured and killed in October 2011.A total of 10 people are facing a retrial on appeal in the case.