In a courtroom drama that has gripped France and sent ripples through international political circles, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy faces a verdict that could see him sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for allegedly accepting millions in illegal campaign funding from the regime of Libya’s late dictator, Moammar Gadhafi. The Paris court’s decision, expected on Thursday, September 25, 2025, marks a pivotal moment in a saga that has entwined high politics, international intrigue, and the shadowy world of back-channel deals.
The trial, which spanned three months earlier this year, put Sarkozy, now 70, and 11 co-defendants—including three former ministers—under the microscope. Prosecutors have called for a seven-year prison sentence and a €300,000 fine, asserting that Sarkozy knowingly benefited from what they described as a “corruption pact” with Gadhafi’s government. According to the Associated Press, this would make Sarkozy the first former French president convicted of accepting illegal foreign funds to win office.
The roots of the accusations stretch back to 2011, when both a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi himself claimed that the Libyan state had secretly funneled millions of euros into Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. The following year, the French investigative outlet Mediapart published a purported Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. Sarkozy immediately denounced the document as a forgery and sued for defamation, but French magistrates later deemed the memo authentic—though crucially, no conclusive evidence of a completed transaction was presented during the trial.
Investigators also examined a series of trips to Libya made by people close to Sarkozy during his tenure as France’s interior minister from 2005 to 2007, including his chief of staff. The story took a sensational turn in 2016 when Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that he had personally delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry under Sarkozy. Takieddine later partially retracted his statement in 2020—only to reaffirm his accusations at a later date. This about-face has since become the focus of a separate investigation into possible witness tampering, with both Sarkozy and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, handed preliminary charges for alleged efforts to pressure Takieddine. That case has not yet gone to trial.
The timing of Takieddine’s death—announced by his lawyer Élise Arfi and confirmed by his family on September 23, 2025, just two days before the expected verdict in Paris—has added yet another layer of intrigue to the proceedings. Takieddine, who was 75, died in Beirut, Lebanon, where he had lived since fleeing France in 2020. Media reports differ on the cause of death, with some mentioning a long illness while others remain silent on the matter. His absence from the Paris trial left a conspicuous gap, as he had been a central figure in both the so-called “Sarkozy-Kadhafi” affair and the earlier Karachi arms sales scandal.
Takieddine’s career was one of international connections and high-stakes deals. Born in Baakline, Mount Lebanon, and educated at the American University of Beirut and in the United Kingdom, he first made his mark managing the Isola 2000 ski resort in the French Alps, where he cultivated a formidable network of ministers, media moguls, and industrialists. From the 1990s onward, he operated as a go-between in international contracts, especially in the arms industry, moving between Paris, Riyadh, and Tripoli. His flamboyant lifestyle—complete with a mansion near the Trocadéro, a yacht, and residences abroad—mirrored the shadowy world of commissions, tax havens, and parallel diplomacy in which he operated.
In the Libyan affair, Takieddine claimed to have transported approximately 5 million euros in cash from Tripoli to Paris between late 2006 and early 2007, making three trips and handing over suitcases at Place Beauvau, then the seat of the Interior Ministry. At the time, Claude Guéant was Sarkozy’s chief of staff. Sarkozy has consistently denied any wrongdoing and, as AP notes, "benefits from the presumption of innocence." The other officials implicated—Guéant, Brice Hortefeux, and Jean-François Copé—also deny any knowledge of the alleged cash deliveries.
Takieddine’s shifting testimony—first implicating Sarkozy, then retracting, then reaffirming—has been a focal point for both the prosecution and the defense. The separate investigation into witness tampering has ensnared not just Sarkozy and Bruni-Sarkozy, but also, according to Mediapart and Complément d’enquête on France 2, led to allegations that Brigitte Macron, France’s First Lady, attempted to influence influential celebrity press intermediary Michèle "Mimi" Marchand to pay Takieddine to retract his testimony. The justice system, however, has maintained a strict adherence to evidence and legal contradiction, rather than media speculation.
Takieddine’s legal troubles extended beyond the Libyan affair. He was a central figure in the Karachi case, which revolved around kickbacks from 1990s arms sales that may have helped fund the 1995 campaign of then-Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. In June 2020, Takieddine was sentenced to five years in prison for his role in the financial aspects of the Karachi affair, but he did not appear in court and instead remained in Lebanon, which does not extradite its nationals. He was arrested in Lebanon in December 2020 and placed under judicial supervision, but his death now brings a personal epilogue to a legal saga that continues in French courts.
Sarkozy’s legal woes are not limited to the current trial. In June 2025, he was stripped of France’s highest honor, the Legion of Honor medal, following his conviction in a separate corruption case involving attempts to bribe a magistrate in 2014. He was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for one year, but was conditionally released in May 2025 after just over three months due to his age. In another case, Sarkozy was convicted in 2024 of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid, accused of spending nearly twice the legal limit. He was sentenced to one year in prison, with six months suspended, and has appealed the verdict to the Court of Cassation.
Throughout the trial, Sarkozy has maintained his innocence, characterizing the allegations as a politically motivated plot. During court proceedings, he declared, "What credibility can be given to such statements marked by the seal of vengeance?" and described the case as a conspiracy orchestrated by "liars and crooks," including the "Gadhafi clan." He has suggested that the campaign financing accusations are revenge for his public support for military intervention in Libya in 2011, which contributed to Gadhafi’s ouster and death.
Despite these multiple scandals, Sarkozy remains a significant figure in French right-wing politics and the broader public eye, partly due to his marriage to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. His fate now rests with the Paris court, which must weigh years of allegations, denials, and the murky evidence left behind by a cast of characters whose influence extended from the salons of Paris to the palaces of Tripoli.
The outcome of this case will not only determine Sarkozy’s personal future but could also reshape the landscape of French political accountability, setting new precedents for how the nation confronts allegations of corruption at the highest levels of power.
