The Paris Correctional Court began the trial against the former French president this Monday Nicolas Sarkozy and against twelve other men for the alleged irregular financing of the 2007 electoral campaign with money from the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy who turns 70 at the end of the month, did not want to make statements to the press before the start of the hearing, to which he appeared with a dark suit and black tie.
In the brief interrogation to which the president of the court, Nathalie Gavarino subdued all the defendants present (some did not appear, there is one who is considered probably dead and another is in Lebanon, being searched and captured), the one who was head of the French State between 2007 and 2012 He recalled that his current profession is a lawyer.
Before the hearing began, Sarkozy He was speaking in the courtroom with several lawyers and with the other three of the main defendants, the former ministers Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux and Éric Woerth, as well as with his brother Guillaume.
In this process, which will last until April 10, the former French president between 2007 and 2012 is accused of crimes that, if found guilty, could lead to a sentence of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 375,000 euros.
The former conservative president has already been convicted twice, and one of them is definitive, after the ruling a month ago by the Supreme Court, with a firm sentence of one year in prison for a case of corruption and influence peddlingwhich may be served under house arrest with a bracelet electronic.
In addition, Sarkozy has been sentenced in the first instance for the irregular financing of his failed 2012 presidential election campaign (he lost to the socialist François Hollande), to a sentence of one year in prison, half exempt from compliance and the other half under house arrest.
The appeal trial has already taken place and the decision will be known during this year.
The first hearing this Monday will be dedicated to procedural resources who try to annul the process.