PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will face trial over charges he misused his influence to secure leaked details of an inquiry into alleged irregularities in his 2007 election campaign, Le Monde reported on Thursday.
The case came about after investigators used phone-taps to examine separate allegations that late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi funded Sarkozy’s campaign and began to suspect he had kept tabs on a separate case through a network of informants.
Sarkozy’s lawyer was not immediately available for comment.
Sarkozy has faced multiple corruption investigations since leaving office in 2012. He was handed preliminary charges just last week in the most shocking affair: accusations that he took millions in illegal campaign financing from then-Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi.
In a separate case, a judicial official said Thursday that Sarkozy was ordered to stand trial on accusations that he tried to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about yet another investigation involving Sarkozy.
The former president, 63, can appeal the order, and no potential trial date has been set. He has denied wrongdoing.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, is also being ordered to stand trial, along with former magistrate Gilbert Azibert. Sarkozy and Herzog did not respond to requests for comment Thursday.
Sarkozy has objected to the case because part of the investigation is based on information gleaned from tapped phone conversations between him and his lawyer.
Sarkozy and Herzog are suspected of promising the magistrate a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about an investigation into suspected illegal financing of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign by France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Thursday’s announcement marks the second time so far in which Sarkozy has been sent to trial.
Last year, a judge ordered a trial for Sarkozy and 13 others on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign. In that case, his conservative party and a company named Bygmalion are accused of using a special invoice system to conceal unauthorized overspending.
Sarkozy appealed that order to stand trial, and a decision on his appeal is pending.
The Qaddafi investigation, meanwhile, is ongoing.
Sarkozy has said he’s been unfairly targeted by investigators for political reasons.
Sarkozy failed to win his party’s primary for the 2017 presidential election and has largely stayed out of politics since then.
France’s Sarkozy to face trial for corruption, influence peddling
France’s Sarkozy to face trial for corruption, influence peddling
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Moscow made an offer to France regarding a French citizen imprisoned in Russia, says Kremlin
- Laurent Vinatier, an adviser for Swiss-based adviser Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024
- He is accused of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia’s “military and military-technical activities”
The Kremlin on Thursday said it was in contact with the French authorities over the fate of a French political scholar serving a three-year sentence in Russia and reportedly facing new charges of espionage.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia has made “an offer to the French” regarding Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow last year and convicted of collecting military information, and that “the ball is now in France’s court.” He refused to provide details, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
French President Emmanuel Macron is following Vinatier’s situation closely, his office said in a statement. French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said Thursday that all government services are fully mobilized to pay provide consular support to Vinatier and push for his liberation as soon as possible.
Peskov’s remarks come after journalist Jérôme Garro of the French TF1 TV channel asked President Vladimir Putin during his annual news conference on Dec. 19 whether Vinatier’s family could hope for a presidential pardon or his release in a prisoner exchange. Putin said he knew “nothing” about the case, but promised to look into it.
Vinatier was arrested in Moscow in June 2024. Russian authorities accused him of failing to register as a “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia’s “military and military-technical activities” that could be used to the detriment of national security. The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The arrest came as tensions flared between Moscow and Paris following French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments about the possibility of deploying French troops in Ukraine.
Vinatier’s lawyers asked the court to sentence him to a fine, but the judge in October 2024 handed him a three-year prison term — a sentence described as “extremely severe” by France’s Foreign Ministry, which called for the scholar’s immediate release.
Detentions on charges of spying and collecting sensitive data have become increasingly frequent in Russia and its heavily politicized legal system since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
In addition to criticizing his sentence, the French Foreign Ministry urged the abolition of Russia’s laws on foreign agents, which subject those carrying the label to additional government scrutiny and numerous restrictions. Violations can result in criminal prosecution. The ministry said the legislation “contributes to a systematic violation of fundamental freedoms in Russia, like the freedom of association, the freedom of opinion and the freedom of expression.”
Vinatier is an adviser for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organization, which said in June 2024 that it was doing “everything possible to assist” him.
While asking the judge for clemency ahead of the verdict, Vinatier pointed to his two children and his elderly parents he has to take care of.
The charges against Vinatier relate to a law that requires anyone collecting information on military issues to register with authorities as a foreign agent.
Human rights activists have criticized the law and other recent legislation as part of a Kremlin crackdown on independent media and political activists intended to stifle criticism of the war in Ukraine.
In August 2025, Russian state news agency Tass reported that Vinatier was also charged with espionage, citing court records but giving no details. Those convicted of espionage in Russia face between 10 and 20 years in prison.
Russia in recent years has arrested a number of foreigners — mainly US citizens — on various criminal charges and then released them in prisoner swaps with the United States and other Western nations. The largest exchange since the Cold War took place in August 2024, when Moscow freed journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva, fellow American Paul Whelan, and Russian dissidents in a multinational deal that set two dozen people free.
