French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, at a Paris appeals court, on May 12, 2026. ALICE SACCO/REUTERS
It was only a taste of what was to come: After forcefully accusing, on Monday, May 11, former president Nicolas Sarkozy of having been the "instigator" of a criminal conspiracy – the charge that had already earned him a five-year prison sentence in September 2025 – on Tuesday, the prosecutor requested that the Paris appeals court also convict him for "corruption," "concealment of embezzlement of public funds," and "illegal campaign financing" for having received Libyan funds to finance his 2007 presidential election campaign. In the initial trial, the judges had dropped these three extra charges, but Prosecutor Damien Brunet painstakingly detailed his arguments for them in a thorough and damning closing statement.
Subscribers only
Sarkozy's trial: The full timeline of the Libyan campaign financing case
"Corruption is the core link among all the defendants," the prosecutor said, "around which everything was devised. Nicolas Sarkozy and Claude Guéant, his closest aide, thought they were untouchable." At the start of the investigation, Sarkozy declared: "First of all, I want to say that I contest my police custody." Meanwhile, Guéant, who served the former president as Elysée secretary general, wrote to some of the country's highest-level judges that he was suffering a "very grave injustice." "Corruption is the shortest path from one ego to another," Brunet said.
