Sarkozy Libya appeal: Defence pleads case in Paris

Tuesday was the defense pleadings in the Libyan trial appeal in Paris, which will conclude on 27 May with the pleadings of the former president’s lawyers. T

he ruling is due to be delivered on November 30. French prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for former French president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought illegal Libyan financing for his 2007 election.

Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing in the case, but last year became modern France’s first former president to go to jail, before he was released after 20 days pending his appeal trial.

Prosecutors also requested Sarkozy be banned from office for five years on top of the prison sentence.

Sarkozy, 71, told the court there was “not a single cent of Libyan money” in the campaign that saw him elected in 2007.

He denied his aides made any promises to Gaddafi’s then military intelligence chief, Abdallah Senussi, who had been linked to the bombings.