Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is standing trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling, a first for the 65-year-old politician who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012. Sarkozy is accused of offering to boost a high magistrate's chance of obtaining a promotion in Monaco back in 2014 in return for leaked information about a judicial inquiry against him. Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and the senior judge, Gilbert Azibert, are also standing trial. They face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of one million euros. They deny any wrongdoing. Sarkozy and Herzog are suspected of promising Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about an investigation into suspected illegal financing of the 2007 presidential campaign by France's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt. The case dates back to 2014 after investigators from the newly-created Parquet National Financier (National Financial Prosecutor's Office) tapped Sarkozy and Herzog's phones over allegations the former president had illegally received millions of euros from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his successful 2007 presidential campaign. At the time, Sarkozy, who had been ousted from office by François Hollande two years prior, was also being investigated for allegedly taking illegal payments from billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress to the L'Oréal empire, to fund his presidential aspirations. Phone conversations recorded between Sarkozy and Herzog made investigators suspect the former French leader had offered to use his contacts to get the judge Azibert a coveted position in Monaco, in exchange for information about the investigation into the Bettencourt case. — Agencies
