Monday, March 16th saw former French president Nicolas Sarkozy return to court, this time to contest charges he accepted funding from Libya as part of his 2007 campaign for re-election.
Already France and the European Union’s first modern-day head of state to be imprisoned, these long-running allegations will further damage his reputation and legacy.
Last September a lower court found the ex-head of state (2007–2012) guilty of approaching Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya to secure campaign funding. Sarkozy denies all wrongdoing, but to date has served 20 days in a Paris jail and been made to wear an electronic ankle tag.
Now presumed innocent again, it’s possible he could clear his name at the Paris Appeal Court between now and June 3rd.
Sarkozy’s stint in jail from a separate campaign finance conviction also led to a side-hustle as a true crime writer. Is another volume of prison memoirs on the way?
