Furious Sarkozy vows to fight ‘crazy’ Libya corruption charges, but he’s finished with politics

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to clear his name on Thursday after being charged with allegedly financing his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, but admitted he was “finished” in politics.

“It might take me one, two, 10 years but I’ll smash this group (of accusers) and will restore my honour,” he said during an emotion-charged prime-time television interview on Friday evening. “I don’t plan to give an inch.”

Having already stepped back from a front-line public role in 2016 after he failed with a bid to run again for president, Sarkozy told his interviewer on the TF1 channel that for himself “politics is finished”.

In an defiant half-hour performance that saw him shake with indignation at times, Sarkozy frequently referred to his accusers from Gaddafi’s regime as “sinister”, “liars” and a “group of killers”. He called the accusations “crazy” and “monstrous”.

“If you had told me that I would have problems because of Gaddafi, I would have said: ‘What are you smoking?’” Sarkozy said at one point, claiming that investigators had not found a single piece of evidence against him.