Prosecutors Push for Longer Sarkozy Sentence

French prosecutors on Wednesday asked judges to send former President Nicolas Sarkozy to prison again—this time for seven years. They are also seeking a fine of 300,000 euros ($330,000) over allegations that the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi secretly funded his successful 2007 presidential campaign, the AP reports.

• Sarkozy, 71, was sentenced in September 2025 to five years for criminal conspiracy, becoming the first former French president in modern history to be imprisoned. He served 20 days in Paris' La Santé prison before being released in November under court supervision. He appealed; prosecutors followed, seeking to revive the charges he beat at trial and impose a longer sentence. The appeal runs until early June, with a verdict expected Nov. 30.

The former president has faced multiple corruption cases in recent years, but the Libya case carries by far the heaviest political and symbolic weight, alleging that a foreign dictatorship helped bring a French president to power. The prosecution Wednesday asked the three judges hearing the appeal to find Sarkozy guilty of corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing the embezzlement of Libyan public funds—three charges of which he was cleared at his first trial. A separate request would ban him from holding public office for five years.

• Sarkozy's lawyer Christophe Ingrain told reporters after the hearing that the prosecution's request was "strictly identical" to what financial prosecutors had unsuccessfully sought at the first trial. "There is no Libyan money in his campaign, in his estate," he said. "Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent, and we will demonstrate it in fifteen days."
• Sarkozy has been convicted in two other cases that are now final. France's top court upheld his conviction in November over the financing of his failed 2012 reelection bid, known as the Bygmalion affair, for which he received a one-year sentence—six months firm and six months suspended.
• A French judge ruled last week that he could serve the six-month sentence on conditional release rather than an electronic ankle tag, citing his age, though that ruling is not yet final. Sarkozy was also convicted of illegally wiretapping a judge.