A French court will rule on September 25 in the trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy on charges he accepted illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, a judge said Tuesday.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied the charges.

He is already serving a one-year sentence with an electronic bracelet in a separate influence-peddling case.

Prosecutors argue that the former conservative leader and his aides devised a pact with Kadhafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.

They have requested the 70-year-old serve a seven-year prison sentence, pay a fine of 300,000 euros ($330,000) and be handed a five-year ban on holding office.

As the trial ended on Tuesday, Sarkozy described the prosecution's demand as "political and violent" in a "hateful media and political context".

"I am not here to do politics but to defend my........

© Al Monitor