Ex-French president, who was jailed last year for criminal conspiracy, to be tried at Paris appeal court on four counts
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.
