Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial accused of receiving illegal funding from Gaddafi

Former French president alleged to have received millions of euros from Libyan dictator’s regime to fund campaign

Nicolas Sarkozy has gone on trial over allegations he received millions of euros in illegal election campaign funding from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, in the biggest political financing scandal in modern French history.

The historic trial of the rightwing former French president and 12 other people – including three former government ministers – for criminal conspiracy to receive funds from a foreign dictator on a massive scale threatens to worsen voters’ already low trust in the French political class.