Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the Cour d'Appel in Paris on May 4, 2026, during the appeal trial over suspicions of Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential campaign. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP
This time, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy said he was certain: He had provided "irrefutable" proof of his innocence. Before the Paris Court of Appeal, his lawyers presented, on Wednesday, April 29, a series of opaque tables from which he distilled a clear summary: Yes, Ziad Takieddine, the intermediary, received millions of euros from the Libyans, but not a cent went into Sarkozy's presidential campaign, and a large share of the money was sent back to Libya as kickbacks. The court took the weekend to analyze this flood of figures, but on Monday, May 4, Sarkozy returned with more tables, just as impenetrable.
It seemed unlikely that this demonstration would be enough to convince the judges to drop the charges, and the former president's dramatic move left Judge Olivier Géron unmoved on the final day of hearings in the appeal trial over suspicions of Libyan financing for Sarkozy's 2007 presidential campaign.
The tables were derived from the analysis of a USB drive provided by Takieddine's widow. In the midst of divorce proceedings, she had copied onto it what she found at her wealthy husband's home, so as not to be disadvantaged after their separation. The files were incomplete, especially the documents in Arabic, which she does not speak.
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