Former president Nicolas Sarkozy will head back to court on Monday to defend himself against charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election, in a case that last year saw him become France’s first modern-day head of state to go to prison.<\/p>\n
A lower court in September found the right-wing politician — who was head of state from 2007 to 2012 — guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy — who has denied any wrongdoing — in October entered a Paris jail, serving 20 days before he was released.<\/p>\n
The retrial at the Paris Appeal Court, to run until June 3, means the 71-year-old is once again presumed innocent.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.<\/p>\n
In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May last year, for trying to extract favours from a judge.<\/p>\n
And in the other, he will have to serve more time over illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.<\/p>\n
In the so-called “Libyan case”, he has appealed a five-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n
A lower court in September convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run. But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for the campaign.<\/p>\n
His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the “exceptional gravity” of the conviction.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy entered prison on October 21, becoming the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated.<\/p>\n
– Prison diaries –<\/p>\n
In the initial trial, prosecutors had argued Sarkozy’s aides, acting in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.<\/p>\n
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.<\/p>\n
Members of Sarkozy’s circle have not wished to comment before the retrial.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled “Diary of a Prisoner”, with supporters queuing around the block in Paris to buy a copy when it came out in December.<\/p>\n
In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food.<\/p>\n
But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republicans party he once headed and the country’s main far-right party to “rebuild the right”.<\/p>\n
He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign financing case with the help of a paparazzi boss.\u00a0They deny wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
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