France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy will go on trial on appeal over Libyan campaign-funding allegations starting March 16, a Paris court said Thursday.
A lower court in September found the right-wing politician -- who was head of state from 2007 to 2012 -- guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Moamer Kadhafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.
Sarkozy was sentenced to five years behind bars but left La Sante prison in Paris on Monday after serving just 20 days, following a judge's order for his release.
The 70-year-old had immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him jailed, citing the "exceptional gravity" of the conviction.
The appeal means Sarkozy -- who has denied any wrongdoing -- is again presumed innocent, with proceedings scheduled to run until June 3, the Paris appeals court said in a statement on Thursday.
Sarkozy entered jail on October 21, becoming the first former head of a European Union state to be incarcerated.
In the so-called "Libyan case", prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy's name, struck a deal with Kadhafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid.
Investigators believe that in return, Kadhafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
The court convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over the plan. But it did not conclude that he received or used the funds for his campaign.
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012, and has already been convicted in two other cases.
AFP
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