{"id":3300,"date":"2026-04-07T13:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/3300\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T13:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T13:30:07","slug":"france-ex-president-sarkozy-challenges-conviction-over-alleged-libya-funding-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/3300\/","title":{"rendered":"France ex-president Sarkozy challenges conviction over alleged Libya funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">French former president Nicolas Sarkozy maintained his innocence on Tuesday, telling an appeal hearing in Paris that not a single cent from Libya helped fund his 2007 presidential campaign.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cI owe the truth to the French people,\u201d Sarkozy told a three-judge panel during a hearing in the case that led him to spend 20 days in prison before being granted release pending appeal. \u201cI\u2019m innocent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Sarkozy, 71, is challenging his conviction after being found guilty in September of criminal conspiracy. He was sentenced to five years in prison for his alleged part in a scheme to obtain funds from the government of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in exchange for political and diplomatic favours.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Sarkozy has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and claims the allegations are politically motivated.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">His wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, attended Tuesday\u2019s hearing which focused on his role as a conservative presidential candidate and then president from 2007 to 2012.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and his wife Carla Bruni leave the courtroom at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on Tuesday. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/34bfb8ae-83ec-4fa9-bf01-3832a4d2ac69_76daf572.jpg\" title=\"Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and his wife Carla Bruni leave the courtroom at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on Tuesday. Photo: AFP\"\/>Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and his wife Carla Bruni leave the courtroom at the Palais de Justice courthouse in Paris on Tuesday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The 12-week appeal trial, which began last month, will re-examine all of the evidence and testimony related to him and nine codefendants \u2013 including three former ministers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French former president Nicolas Sarkozy maintained his innocence on Tuesday, telling an appeal hearing in Paris that not&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3189,3235,3230,3233,5,607,3228,2707,3229,3164,3163,3231,30,3232,3234],"class_list":{"0":"post-3300","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-abdullah-al-senoussi","9":"tag-arab-spring","10":"tag-carla-bruni-sarkozy","11":"tag-court-of-cassation","12":"tag-france","13":"tag-french","14":"tag-gaddafi","15":"tag-libya","16":"tag-lockerbie","17":"tag-muammar-gaddafi","18":"tag-nicolas-sarkozy","19":"tag-niger","20":"tag-paris","21":"tag-sherpa","22":"tag-uta-flight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}