Sarkozy protests his innocence in Libya cash scandal

PARIS, France — French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy angrily protested his innocence on Thursday after he was charged with corruption over explosive claims that late Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi funded his 2007 election campaign.

The 63-year-old rightwinger said in his court statement, published by the Figaro newspaper, that he had been through “hell” since the allegations emerged in 2011.

“I stand accused without any tangible evidence,” he said, demanding he be treated as a witness rather than a suspect.

“In the 24 hours of my detention I have tried with all my might to show that the serious corroborating evidence required to charge someone did not exist.”

The allegations that Sarkozy took money from Qadhafi — whom he helped to topple in 2011 — are the most serious out of myriad investigations dogging him since he left office in 2012.

Judges decided they had enough evidence to charge the combative one-term president on Wednesday after five years of investigation and two days of questioning in police custody in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.

Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, was charged with corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of Libyan public money, a judiciary source told AFP.

“I’ve been living the hell of this slander since March 11, 2011,” when the allegations first emerged, Sarkozy said.

He went as far as to blame “the controversy launched by Qadhafi and his henchmen” for his failure to win reelection in 2012, when Francois Hollande, a Socialist, took the presidency.

Sarkozy will have six months to appeal the charges, and judges will have to make a further decision about whether they have sufficient proof to take the case to trial.

Suitcases of cash?

Since 2013, investigators have been looking into claims by several figures in Qadhafi’s ousted regime, including his son Seif Al Islam, that Sarkozy’s campaign received cash from the dictator.

A few months after his 2007 election Sarkozy gave Qadhafi the red-carpet treatment during a state visit which critics denounced as an attempt to rehabilitate an international pariah long accused of human rights abuses.

In 2011, as NATO-backed forces were driving Qadhafi out of power, Seif Al Islam told the Euronews network that Sarkozy must “give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign”.

Sarkozy has dismissed the allegations as the rantings of vindictive Qadhafi loyalists who were furious over the French-led military intervention that helped end Qadhafi’s 41-year rule and ultimately led to his death.

He has also sued the investigative website Mediapart for publishing a document allegedly signed by Libya’s intelligence chief showing that Qadhafi agreed to give Sarkozy up to 50 million euros ($62 million).

Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine claims to have delivered three suitcases stuffed with a total of 5 million euros ($6.15 million) to Sarkozy and his chief of staff in 2006 and 2007.

Sarkozy lashed out at the arms broker in his statement, arguing his account contained inconsistencies and accusing him of having “highly suspect characteristics and a questionable past”.

“I would like to remind you that he has no proof of any meeting with me during this period 2005-2011.”

Takieddine, after Sarkozy was charged on Wednesday night, retorted: “I’m not the liar here.”

The legal investigation is also looking into a 500,000-euro foreign cash transfer to Sarkozy’s former chief of staff Claude Gueant and the 2009 sale of a luxury villa to a Libyan investment fund.

Le Monde newspaper further reported that other former regime officials have stepped forward alleging illicit financing.

First ex-president in custody

In 2014, Sarkozy became the first former French president to be taken into police custody, over a separate inquiry into claims he tried to interfere in another legal investigation against him.

But he is not the first ex-president to be charged with corruption — his predecessor Jacques Chirac was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for embezzlement and misuse of public funds during his time as mayor of Paris. 

Sarkozy is already charged in two separate cases, one relating to fake invoices devised to mask overspending on his failed 2012 campaign and another for alleged influence peddling.

He has stepped back from frontline politics since his failed re-election bid, but he still holds considerable influence with his rightwing Republicans party.

The party has so far backed him publicly.

“Being charged does not necessarily mean you are guilty,” said Republicans leader Laurent Wauquiez.