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Sarkozy insists on innocence in last day of appeal trial in Libya case

The former president has faced multiple corruption cases in recent years, but the Libya case carries by far the heaviest political and symbolic weight, alleging that a foreign dictatorship helped bring a French president to power.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/05/27/sarkozy-insists-on-innocence-in-last-day-of-appeal-trial-in-libya-case

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Transcript
00:01Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy insisted on Wednesday that he had not betrayed the trust
00:07of the French people in his final statement before the Paris Court of Appeal, which is
00:11retrying the case into allegations that the late Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi secretly funded
00:16his successful 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy was sentenced in September 2025 to
00:23five years for criminal conspiracy, becoming the first former French president in modern
00:28history to be imprisoned. He served 20 days in Paris-la-Santé prison before being released
00:34in November under court supervision. He appealed the initial decision and prosecutors followed,
00:40seeking to revive the charges and impose a longer sentence of seven years.
00:45The prosecution asked the three judges hearing the appeal to find Sarkozy guilty of corruption,
00:50illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of Libyan public funds,
00:55three charges of which he was cleared at his first trial. A verdict is expected by the 30th of November.
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