DIRECT. Appeal trial over suspicions of Libyan financing: “We are here to fight, to defend ourselves”, pleads one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyers

Christophe Ingrain, one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s four counsel, opened the pleadings on Wednesday May 27, on the last day of the appeal trial on suspicion of Libyan financing of the 2007 campaign of the former President of the Republic. “Thirteen years we have been trying by all means, by all forces, to involve Nicolas Sarkozy in this grotesque novel”declared the lawyer in the morning, calling for release.

Wednesday afternoon, it was Sébastien Schapira, the third to plead, who took the floor. “We are here to fight, to defend ourselvesassured the lawyer. But you still need to know against what.” “It’s a litigant who is before you, and who is there to debate”, he defended before adding that Nicolas Sarkozy, during this appeal trial, “wet the shirt literally and figuratively”. “He is not someone who sees himself as untouchable, but who is there to respond.” At the end of the pleadings of Nicolas Sarkozy’s four lawyers, the decision will be deliberated: it is expected on November 30. Follow our live stream.

• “We do not condemn on a hypothesis.” The ex-president’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, who pleaded first this morning, insisted that there exists “hypotheses in spades” et a déploré “recourse to this rescue offense which is criminal association”, pour “to fill in” THE “deficiencies” of this case and for which the former President of the Republic was sentenced at first instance to five years in prison.
• Seven years of imprisonment required against Nicolas Sarkozy. The general prosecutor’s office demanded, on May 13, the conviction of the former president to seven years in prison, a fine of 300,000 euros and five years of ineligibility for criminal conspiracy, illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzlement of Libyan public funds and corruption, asking the court “to sanction him commensurate with the seriousness of the facts”. Requisitions similar to those of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office in first instance.
• A defense weakened by Claude Guéant. After questioning the integrity of his former collaborator, unable to appear at this appeal trial for health reasons, Nicolas Sarkozy saw his defense weakened. Claude Guéant produced two certificates which call into question Nicolas Sarkozy’s version. “I have never done anything other than serve the minister, then the president, as best I can, following his instructions”supported Claude Guéant, ensuring that the former president had put on the table the legal fate of the terrorist Abdallah Senoussi, mastermind of the DC-10 attack committed in 1989, to obtain Libyan public funds to finance his campaign.
• Sentenced to five years in prison at first instance. Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy following the first trial, but was acquitted of the three other offenses for which he was tried. This conviction led to his twenty-day incarceration at the Santé prison in Paris. His closest collaborators, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, who also appealed, were also convicted.