Nicolas Sarkozy’s defense has demanded an acquittal for the former French president on appeal. He is on trial for allegedly partly financing his presidential campaign in 2007 with Libyan money. The Public Prosecution Service is demanding a prison sentence of seven years.
Journalist at HLN
Source: Belga
Sarkozy has a team of four lawyers, who explained in an hours-long argument why the former president should be acquitted. “Nicolas Sarkozy must be acquitted because he is innocent,” said lawyer Tristan Gautier. The defense dismissed the allegations as a “grotesque novel.”
I only ask for one thing: to be treated like anyone else, to be tried for what I have done and not for who I am
The ex-president himself also spoke: “I have not betrayed the trust of the French. I only ask for one thing: to be treated like anyone else, to be tried for what I have done and not for who I am,” he said after his lawyers had argued for the acquittal.
He also referred to his 20 days of confinement: “This affects me, because now I am going to wait like a man who, when he wakes up, will only ask himself one thing: am I going there again?”
Libya
The case revolves around the accusation that Sarkozy wanted to finance his campaign with secret money from the then Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi. The judge acquitted the former president in the first instance on three of the four charges. Although it had been proven that Libya had transferred approximately 6.5 million euros in 2006, there was no evidence that this money actually ended up in Sarkozy’s campaign coffers.
The court did rule that Sarkozy allowed his closest associates, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, to secretly approach the Libyan authorities at the end of 2005.
The appeal process will continue until June 3. Nine co-defendants are also on trial. The verdict is expected on November 30.
