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Trial Starts for Nicolas Sarkozy in Libya Election Case

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Trial Starts for Nicolas Sarkozy in Libya Election Case

Former President Nicolas Sarkozy of France on Monday went on trial in Paris over accusations that his 2007 campaign received illegal financing from the Libyan government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi.

The trial, which is scheduled to last three months, is far from the first for Mr. Sarkozy, 69, a conservative politician who led France from 2007 to 2012, but it represents one of the most serious legal threats to the French politician since he left office.

Just last month, Mr. Sarkozy exhausted his final appeal in a separate corruption and influence peddling case, making him the first former French president sentenced to actual detention, though he will serve his time under house arrest with an electronic bracelet.

But of all the legal cases against Mr. Sarkozy, the Libya one is among the most sprawling, convoluted and explosive. It involves accusations that his campaign illegally accepted vast sums of money from Colonel Qaddafi, the former Libyan strongman who was killed by opposition fighters in 2011.

Mr. Sarkozy, who arrived in court without making any comments, has denied wrongdoing. He could face up to 10 years in prison and be fined nearly $400,000.

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Here is what you need to know about the case.

Mr. Sarkozy is facing charges of illegal campaign financing, criminal conspiracy, concealing the misappropriation of public funds and passive corruption (a charge that applies to people suspected of receiving money or favors).

The case against him involves a complex web of political and financial ties between Mr. Sarkozy’s advisers, officials who were part of Colonel Qaddafi’s government, and businessmen or bankers who acted as intermediaries.

Twelve other people were also ordered to stand trial on similar corruption, embezzlement or illegal campaign financing charges.

“Our thesis is that of a corruption pact,” Jean-François Bohnert, France’s top financial prosecutor, told RMC radio on Monday.

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Prosecutors say that Mr. Sarkozy and his allies sought financing from Libya, in violation of election funding rules, and that the Libyan government promised to provide it. In return, they said, it wanted economic deals, diplomatic recognition and possibly assistance from France in rescinding an arrest warrant against a top Libyan official.

Mr. Sarkozy visited Libya shortly after he was elected, then welcomed Colonel Qaddafi for a widely-criticized state visit in Paris, where the Libyan strongman memorably pitched his Bedouin-style tent.

In 2011, as Libya was roiled by fighting between the army and rebels, Colonel Qaddafi and his son said in media interviews that Mr. Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign had taken Libyan money.

Then, in 2012, the investigative news website Mediapart published a document, presented as a note by Libya’s secret services, that mentioned a deal to fund Mr. Sarkozy’s campaign with up to 50 million euros, or about $52 million. That same year, as part of a separate investigation, Ziad Takieddine, a French-Lebanese businessman, made a similar allegation.

In 2013, prosecutors opened an investigation. It lasted a decade and involvedover 20 countries, 50 police raids and 70 volumes of case files.

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Mr. Sarkozy has repeatedly and strenuously denied the accusations, which he argues were driven mostly by allies of Colonel Qaddafi seeking revenge.

Under Mr. Sarkozy’s leadership, France played a prominent role in the NATO-led campaign of airstrikes that ultimately led to the toppling of Colonel Qaddafi and his death at the hands of Libyan rebels.

There have been conflicting accounts about the sequence of events and the amounts of money involved, and some of the defendants have shifted their versions of what happened.

Some Libyan officials have even denied that Mr. Sarkozy’s campaign received any funding, and Mr. Sarkozy’s legal team has seized on the vagaries of the case.

“We don’t even have the amount of this alleged illegal financing,” Christophe Ingrain, Mr. Sarkozy’s lawyer, told RTL radio on Sunday. “Sometimes it’s in euros, sometimes in dollars, sometimes in dinars, sometimes 2 million, 3 million, 50 million, 400 million. This isn’t serious.”

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Mr. Sarkozy’s official records for the 2007 campaign indicated that he spent over €21 million, and any illicit financing from Libya would have enabled him to skirt France’s strict spending cap for presidential campaigns. Prosecutors have not clearly laid out how much Libya actually sent or how much they believe was actually spent on the campaign. But under French law, prosecutors do not have to prove that a corrupt deal was carried out to secure a conviction — only that one was agreed upon.

Mr. Sarkozy no longer holds public office. But his memoirs are best-sellers, he is still popular with the base of his conservative party and he retains some political influence.

Yes, twice. Mr. Sarkozy has faced multiple accusations of financial impropriety since he left office.

In 2021, he became the first former president in France’s recent history to be sentenced to actual detention after he was convicted of trying to obtain information from a judge about a court case against him.

Mr. Sarkozy has exhausted his appeal options in that case, but he will not be incarcerated. Instead, he will serve one year under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, although a judge has not yet ruled on the practical details.

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Mr. Sarkozy was also convicted in 2021 to a year of house arrest for illegally financing his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign, which wildly exceeded France’s spending limits. An appeals court last year upheld the conviction but halved his sentence, and that case is still going through the appeals process.

Other cases against Mr. 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.

And some cases are still being investigated, including an offshoot of the Libya case. In 2023, Mr. Sarkozy was placed under formal investigation on charges of witness tampering, after allegations that his allies pressured Mr. Takieddine, the French-Lebanese businessman, into retracting his accusations.

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Israeli Strikes Kill a Journalist and Injure Another in Lebanon

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Israeli Strikes Kill a Journalist and Injure Another in Lebanon

Israeli strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, rattling a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli military had targeted the journalists in the town of Tayri, where they took shelter in a nearby house after an airstrike struck a vehicle in front of the car they were traveling in. About an hour and a half later, a second strike hit the house they were hiding in, according to a statement by a Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which employed the journalist who was killed.

The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams came under fire while trying to evacuate the journalists from the house, forcing them to withdraw. The rescue crews were targeted by a warning strike and machine-gun fire, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Zeinab Faraj, a photojournalist, was rescued from the house. The other journalist, Amal Khalil, who was a reporter for Al-Akhbar, remained trapped under rubble for hours before emergency medics recovered her body, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.

In addition to Ms. Khalil, the two people in the car in front of her were killed in the strikes, Al-Akhbar reported.

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Amid the 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon, Israel has continued strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, citing its right to self-defense. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group, said that it had fired rockets and drones into Israel on Tuesday in response to what it said were violations of the cease-fire. Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded two others in another part of the country.

The Lebanese health ministry called the strikes in Tayri a “blatant double breach, involving both the obstruction of rescue efforts for a civilian known for her media and humanitarian work, and the direct targeting of an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Cross.”

The Israeli military denied in a statement that it had prevented rescuers from reaching the injured journalists, and said the incident was under investigation.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said Israeli forces had spotted two vehicles emerging from a military building used by Hezbollah. The military observed the vehicles cross what the spokeswoman called the forward defense line, determining the move to be a violation of the truce agreement.

The spokeswoman confirmed that the Israeli military had struck one of the vehicles and the building some of the occupants of the second vehicle had taken shelter in.

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Ms. Khalil had covered southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah exercises strong control, since at least 2006. In a tribute to Ms. Khalil, a colleague from Al-Akhbar said she embodied the resilience of the southern Lebanese through her relentless reporting, refusing to leave the front lines of war where thousands of Lebanese had been displaced.

“As with every act of aggression, wearing a press vest did not protect those who wore it from the treachery of the Israeli enemy,” Al-Akhbar said in a statement. “Instead, it has become a danger to journalists’ lives, as part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing anyone who seeks to expose the crimes and practices of the occupation.”

In a forceful statement on social media, Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese prime minister, accused the Israeli military of war crimes for targeting journalists and obstructing access to medical aid. He said that Lebanon would pursue action to ensure Israel is held accountable with international bodies.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it was outraged by the attack, and that it raised serious concerns of deliberate targeting.

“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

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Former Mexican beauty queen found shot dead as investigators examine possible family involvement: reports

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Former Mexican beauty queen found shot dead as investigators examine possible family involvement: reports

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A former Mexican beauty queen was found shot to death in her Mexico City apartment, with investigators examining the possible involvement of her mother-in-law, according to local reports.

Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead inside an apartment in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the city’s most affluent areas, Reporte Índigo, a Mexico-based news outlet, reported. 

Authorities said the death is being investigated as a homicide, after initial findings indicated she suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders were called to the scene, where paramedics confirmed she showed no signs of life.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Flores Gómez’s mother-in-law, Erika María, as well as a man described in reports as her partner or husband, may have been involved in her death.

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CALIFORNIA HIKER’S BODY FOUND NAKED IN BIG SUR BACKCOUNTRY

Carolina Flores Gómez was found shot dead in her luxury apartment April 15 in Mexico City. Her mother-in-law has been named the main suspect in the suspected homicide. (Jam Press)

The man, identified as Alejandro, accused his mother of killing Flores Gómez, Mexican news outlet Azteca Guerrero reported.

The outlet also reported that the woman’s mother-in-law was present at the scene when the gun was fired and that authorities are looking into the timeline of when the incident was reported.

WIDOW, SON OF LATE CHICAGO COMMISSIONER FOUND SHOT DEAD INSIDE HOME IN SUSPECTED HOMICIDE

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Mexican prosecutors have opened a homicide with intent case in the death of former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez.  (Jam Press)

Preliminary reports cited by Mexican news outlet Diario Puntual indicate that a security guard at the building did not hear gunshots, adding uncertainty about how the crime occurred.

Authorities in Baja California, Mexico, also responded to the case, Diario Puntual reported.

CIA PERSONNEL KILLED IN MEXICO CRASH TIED TO CARTEL OPERATION; QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER US ROLE

Former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead in her Mexico City apartment. (Jam Press)

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Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda expressed solidarity with the victim’s family and called for the case to be clarified. 

State prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez also said there is coordination with Mexico City authorities to support the investigation.

Flores Gómez previously competed in beauty pageants and was crowned Miss Teen Universe Baja California in 2017.

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The case has drawn attention in Mexico amid ongoing concerns about violence against women, with advocacy groups calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.

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The investigation into the matter is open and ongoing.

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‘Blockade and threats’: Iran blames US siege of ports for stalled talks

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‘Blockade and threats’: Iran blames US siege of ports for stalled talks
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