France's former leader Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to five years for his part in the illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by Muammar Ghaddafi's Libya. He'll do time... even during his appeal. That's on top of his electronic bracelet he wore in a seperate case of eavesdropping on magistrates. "I'm innocent," insists the conservative leader...
... Sarkozy who still casts a long shadow over French politics and regularly advises current president Emmanuel Macron despite the four criminal cases against the founder of the Les Républicains party whose current leader Bruno Retailleau also serves as Macron's interior minister. A verdict that's a triumph of a judiciary branch of government that's independent of political pressures... or overreach as claimed by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who's got legal issues of her own?
We'll look at the facts and ask about the masterminds and bag men of the Libya corruption trial... one that harks back to a time when Muammar Ghaddafi was back in the good graces of the international community... before Sarkozy himself led the charge to have the UN intervene and stop Gaddafi from quashing the Arab Spring rebellion out of Benghazi. How does Thursday's verdict sit here and there?
Produced by François Picard, Théophile Vareille, Juliette Laffont, Guillaume Gougeon, Charles Wente.
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Guillaume DENOIX DE SAINT MARC President, French association for victims of terrorism
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Philippe MOREAU-CHEVROLET Professor of political communication, Sciences Po
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Claire PACCALIN FRANCE 24 reporter
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Anas EL-GOMATI Director, Sadeq Institute
English (US) · 