Nicolas Sarkozy and the Libya Investigation: The Key Questions

PARIS — Nicolas Sarkozy, the once flamboyant French president who had hoped to revive his political career, is facing a formal investigation over allegations that his 2007 campaign received illegal funding from Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

It is not certain that Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012 but failed to generate enough enthusiasm in his 2016 comeback bid, will stand trial. But the decision by investigators to pursue the case represents a significant step and means that a return to the political stage is even more unlikely for Sarkozy.

Sarkozy acknowledged as much Thursday, saying in a television interview, “Politics, that’s over.”

Here are some answers to the central questions about the case.

After two days of questioning by the police, Sarkozy, 63, who was been the subject of several corruption inquiries, was formally charged with passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and misappropriation of Libyan public funds. (The charge of passive corruption applies to people suspected of receiving money or favors.)

The case was opened in 2013, after a 2012 report by the investigative news website Mediapart suggesting that Sarkozy’s campaign had received up to 50 million euros, or nearly $62 million at current exchange rates, from Gadhafi’s government.

Investigators have been proceeding slowly, and their inquiries had featured in the news only sporadically.

The case files are sealed, and several of the Libyans said to have played a role are dead or exiled, making it hard to piece together a fully accurate picture of the investigation.

It involves a complex web of political and financial ties between Sarkozy’s advisers, officials who were part of Gadhafi’s government before he was ousted, and figures who played a murky role as intermediaries between the two as relations between France and Libya warmed up in the mid-2000s.

The accusations stem mostly from former Libyan officials and a Franco-Lebanese arms dealer named Ziad Takieddine, who acted as an intermediary and who says he personally delivered millions in cash. One official, a former oil minister for Gadhafi named Shukri Ghanem — whose body was found in the Danube in Vienna in 2012 — left behind documents that refer to payments made to Sarkozy in 2007.

The officials, and Takieddine, have given conflicting accounts about the sequence of events and the amounts of money involved. Some Libyan officials have even denied that Sarkozy’s campaign received any funding.

A report by investigators cited in the French news media appears to have established that Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign had unusual amounts of cash on hand — one of Sarkozy’s top aides rented a large bank vault during the campaign, ostensibly to store documents and speeches. But the sums mentioned were in the range of tens of thousands of euros, not millions.

Still, the fact that the French magistrates investigating the case have decided to place Sarkozy under formal investigation suggests they that there is evidence of potential wrongdoing, even if the exact scope and nature remain unclear.

Sarkozy has continually and strenuously denied the accusations, calling them “grotesque.” In a Thursday night interview on the French television channel TF1, he said he had “never betrayed the trust” of the French people.

“There is not one document, not one picture, not one account, not one piece of material proof. There is only hatred, mud, mediocrity, malevolence and slander,” Sarkozy said in an interview with French television.

He called Takieddine “sinister” and “unbalanced.” Noting that many of the accusations came from former Libyan officials, Sarkozy disparaged Gadhafi and his aides as “assassins” and “criminals” who could not be trusted.

He argued that the accusations were driven by a desire by allies of Gadhafi to seek revenge against Sarkozy. France, under his leadership, played a prominent role in the NATO-led campaign of airstrikes that ultimately led to the toppling of Gadhafi and his death at the hands of Libyan rebels in 2011.

In France, complex criminal cases are handled by special magistrates with broad investigative powers, who place defendants under formal investigation when they believe the evidence points to serious wrongdoing.

This means that the investigation will continue for several months, if not longer. Sarkozy’s conduct will be restricted as the magistrates do their work — a first for a former president in recent French history.

He has been forbidden to meet with several people of interest in the case, including two close allies who have also come under scrutiny, and he is barred from traveling to a handful of countries, including Libya. Sarkozy’s lawyer said Friday that he would appeal the restrictions.

But Sarkozy will not necessarily stand trial when the investigation ends. The magistrates can drop the charges if they do not believe the evidence is sufficient to proceed. Even if the judges order Sarkozy to stand trial, he can still appeal the decision.

Sarkozy has been dogged by accusations of financial impropriety since he left the presidency. That has hampered his ability to make a political comeback, despite his popularity with the base of his party.

He has been ordered to stand trial in two other cases. In the first, involving his 2012 campaign, he has been charged with exceeding strict limits on campaign spending. In the second, he is accused of trying to obtain confidential information from a court judge.

Other cases against Sarkozy have been dropped, including one in which we was accused of manipulating the heiress to the L’Oréal fortune into financing his 2007 campaign.