French ex-president Sarkozy charged with ‘criminal conspiracy’
PA RIS, A FP O C T16, 2020 - French prosecutors said Friday that they had charged former president Nicolas Sarkozy over claims he accepted cash from the Libyan dictatorship of Moamer Kadhafi for his 2007 election campaign.
The charge for “membership in a criminal conspiracy” was brought on Monday after more than 40 hours of questioning over four days, prosecutors told AFP.
The latest charge, which can still be appealed, increases the chance of a trial for Sarkozy, who is already poised to become the first former French president in the dock on corruption charges.
Prosecutors suspect that Sarkozy and his associates received tens of millions of euros from Kadhafi’s regime to help finance his election bid.
Sarkozy, 65, has been under pressure since 2012, when the investigative website Mediapart published a document purporting to show that Kadhafi agreed to give Sarkozy up to 50 million euros ($59 million at current rates).
The two leaders enjoyed surprisingly cordial ties, with Sarkozy letting the Libyan strongman pitch his Bedouin tent opposite the Elysee Palace on a state visit to France just months after his election.
But four years later, in 2011, Sarkozy was a driving force behind the international military invention that drove Kadhafi from power.