Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy protested his innocence at an appeals trial on Tuesday for illegally accepting financing from Libya's former leader Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 election campaign. In September 2025, the initial case saw Sarkozy become modern France's first president to have gone to prison.

Issued on: 07/04/2026 - 14:37Modified: 07/04/2026 - 19:13

France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy at an appeals trial Tuesday said he was "innocent", rejecting charges he had sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election in exchange for helping improve Tripoli's image after deadly bombings.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected and sentenced him to five years behind bars.

“I owe the truth to the French people,” Sarkozy told a three-judge panel during a hearing in the case that led him to spend 20 days in prison before being granted release pending appeal.

“I’m innocent,” he said.

Sarkozy, 71, is challenging his conviction after being found guilty in September of criminal conspiracy. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged part in a scheme to obtain funds from the government of then Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi in exchange for political and diplomatic favors.

Sarkozy has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and says the allegations are politically motivated.

Sarkozy's wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, attended Tuesday's hearing, which focused on his role as a conservative presidential candidate and then president from 2007 to 2012.

The case saw Sarkozy, who has always denied any wrongdoing, become modern France's first president to have gone to prison. He served 20 days before he was released pending the appeal.

Read moreFrance’s ex-president Sarkozy maintains innocence in Libya funding appeal trial

In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy's aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi, promising in return to help restore the Libyan leader's international image after Tripoli was blamed for two airplane bombings.

The West laid the blame on Libya for the bombing of the Pan Am Flight 103 in 1988 over Lockerbie in Scotland – which killed 259 people – and of the UTA Flight 772 over Niger the following year, which took the lives of 170 people.

Relatives of those killed in the 1989 spoke of their ordeal at the appeal trial last week.

"You can only respond to such indescribable suffering with truth," Sarkozy said on the first of several days of taking the stand, with his wife, model and singer Carla Bruni, in the courtroom.

"But you cannot repair suffering with an injustice: I am innocent," he said.

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The lower court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding, but not of receiving or using the funds for the campaign.

The appeal trial is set to run until June 3, with a verdict expected in the fall. If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

(FRANCE 24 with AP, AFP)

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