Prosecutors demand 7-year sentence for Sarkozy over Libyan financing

French prosecutors on Wednesday requested a seven-year prison sentence for former president Nicolas Sarkozy in an appeal trial on charges that he sought Libyan financing for his 2007 election. 

Sarkozy, France's right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, has always denied any wrongdoing but last year became modern France's first former president to have gone to jail over the case, before he was released after 20 days pending his appeal trial.

Prosecutors had also requested seven years in the first trial, and he was sentenced to five over seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign.