Nicolas Sarkozy back in court over alleged Libya funding for 2007 campaign

A court sketch of France's former President Nicolas Sarkozy attending his appeal trial over charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election. Photo / Benoit Peyrucq, AFP

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has insisted on his innocence as he returned to court for an appeal trial on charges he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election.

The case saw Sarkozy become modern France’s first president to have gone to jail, serving 20 days behind bars last year.

“I am innocent, I have committed no act of corruption, either directly or indirectly,” Sarkozy said in his first statement at his appeal trial, which began yesterday.

The 71-year-old has always denied any wrongdoing.

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician, who was President from 2007 to 2012, guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected and sentenced him to five years behind bars.

After his original conviction, Sarkozy in October entered a Paris prison, serving 20 days before he was released pending the appeal.

Under France’s legal system, the appeal trial amounts to a retrial, with the court re-examining all evidence and testimony, and Sarkozy is again presumed innocent.

The trial is set to run until June 3, with a verdict expected in the fall. If convicted, Sarkozy faces up to 10 years in prison.

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal issues since leaving office and has already received two definitive convictions in other cases.

– Agence France-Presse