PARIS: French prosecutors on Wednesday asked judges to send former President Nicolas Sarkozy to prison — again — this time for seven years and fine him 300,000 euros ($330,000) over allegations that the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi secretly funded his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy, 71, was sentenced in September 2025 to five years for criminal conspiracy, becoming the first former French president in modern history to be imprisoned.
He served 20 days in Paris’ La Santé prison before being released in November under court supervision. He appealed; prosecutors followed, seeking to revive the charges he beat at trial and impose a longer sentence. The appeal runs until early June, with a verdict expected Nov. 30.
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.
The prosecution Wednesday asked the three judges hearing the appeal to find Sarkozy guilty of corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of Libyan public funds — three charges of which he was cleared at his first trial. A separate request would ban him from holding public office for five years.
