Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted twice in separate cases since leaving office, goes on trial Monday charged with accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
Sarkozy’s career has been shadowed by legal troubles since he lost the 2012 presidential election but he is an influential figure and also known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.
The fiercely ambitious and energetic 69-year-old, who while in power from 2007-2012 liked to be known as the “hyper-president”, has been convicted in two cases, charged in another, and is being investigated in connection with two more.
The new trial is starting barely half a month after France’s top appeals court on December 18 rejected his appeal against a one-year prison sentence for influence peddling, which he is to serve by wearing an electronic tag rather than in jail.
Sarkozy will be present in the Paris court when the trial gets underway from 1230 GMT and plans to attend the initial phase of hearings, a source close to him told newsmen, asking not to be named.
Sarkozy is still not wearing the electronic tag — a process which could take several weeks — and spent the Christmas holidays in Seychelles with his wife, model, and singer Carla Bruni, and their daughter.
