Seven-year sentence demanded for former French president Nicolas Sarkozy

Prosecutors have requested seven years in prison for former French president Nicolas Sarkozy at his appeal over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.

The request follows the sentence after Mr Sarkozy was convicted of criminal conspiracy and served around three weeks in custody in 2025 before being released pending appeal. 

The latest requisitions also include a €300,000 fine and five years of ineligibility from public office.

Concluding their three-day submission on May 13, prosecutors asked the court to confirm and expand the original reasoning, arguing that Mr Sarkozy was the “instigator” of a scheme involving contacts between his inner circle and Libyan officials.

The prosecution also sought to reinstate charges for corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of embezzled public funds, from which Mr Sarkozy had been partially acquitted. 

The former president was the “principal, indeed the sole beneficiary” of an arrangement designed to secure financing for his victorious 2007 campaign, prosecutors said.

The case against Mr Sarkozy’s former close collaborators was also reaffirmed. 

Six years were requested for Claude Guéant, and four years for Brice Hortefeux, with prosecutors describing their role as central to enabling contacts with Libyan intermediaries.

The court was told the offences amounted to a “deviation of state authority” at the highest level, with prosecutors insisting the conduct had “vitiated the financing of the supreme election of the Fifth Republic”. 

The defence maintains there was no illicit financing and no corruption.

‘Criminal conspiracy’

At the centre of the case is an alleged agreement between Mr Sarkozy, then interior minister, and the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. 

Prosecutors argue that meetings in 2005 in Libya, involving figures close to Mr Sarkozy, were part of a coordinated effort to secure clandestine funding to look into lifting the French arrest warrant for Abdallah Senoussi, the man sentenced by a French court in absentia to life imprisonment for for the 1989 bombing of UTA flight 772 as reported by Le Monde.

Investigators cite the role of intermediaries, including Ziad Takieddine, who previously claimed that millions of euros in cash were channelled towards Sarkozy’s entourage. 

Libyan intelligence chief Abdallah Senoussi was married to Gaddafi's wife's sister.

Prosecutors argue these interactions formed a structured “criminal conspiracy” aimed at influencing the 2007 election. 

The defence rejects the entire framework, arguing that no Libyan funds were ever received and that the accusations rest on inconsistent testimony and uncorroborated claims.

The appeal depends on whether the court accepts that a coordinated plan existed, even in the absence of proven transfers of money. Under French law, that threshold alone can sustain a conviction for criminal conspiracy.

The appeal is expected to last until November 30.