The monthslong trial of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign is shedding light on France’s surprising back-channel talks with the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Family members of terrorist attacks sponsored by Gadhafi’s regime have told the court they suspect that Sarkozy was willing to sacrifice the memories of their loved ones in order to normalize ties with oil-rich Libya almost two decades ago. The trial, which started in January, ends Tuesday with Sarkozy’s lawyers’ closing arguments. The verdict is expected at a later date. French prosecutors requested a seven-year prison sentence for the 70-year-old former leader. Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has denied all wrongdoing. Key moments in the trial focused on talks between France and Libya in the 2000s, when Gadhafi was seeking to restore diplomatic ties with the West. Before that, Libya was considered a pariah state for having sponsored attacks. French families of victims of a 1989 plane bombing told the court about their shock and sense of betrayal as the trial questioned whether promises possibly made to Gadhafi’s government were part of the alleged corruption deal. The Lockerbie and UTA flight bombings In 1988, a bomb planted aboard a Pam Am flight exploded while the plane was over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people from 21 countries, including 190 Americans. The following year, on Sept. 19, 1989, the bombing of UTA flight 772 over Niger killed 170 people, including 54 French nationals on board, after an in-flight explosion caused by a suitcase bomb. Both French and U.S. investigations have tied both bombings to Libya, whose government had engaged in long-running hostilities with the U.S. and other Western governments. Now, families of victims suspect French government officials close to Sarkozy promised to forget about the bombings in exchange for business opportunities with Libya and possibly, an alleged corruption deal. “What did they do with our dead?” Nicoletta Diasio, whose father died in the bombing, told the court, saying she wondered if the memories of the victims “could have been used for bartering” in talks between France and Libya. During the trial, Sarkozy said he has “never ever betrayed” families by using their loved ones as bargaining chips.“ Libya’s push to restore ties with the West Libya’s initial steps to shed its pariah state status came in 2003 when it took responsibility for both the 1988 and 1989 plane bombings and agreed to pay billions in compensation to the victims’ families. Gadhafi also announced he was dismantling his nuclear weapons program, which led to the lifting of international sanctions. Britain, France and other Western countries sought to restore a relationship with Libya for security, diplomatic and business purposes. In 2007, Sarkozy welcomed Gadhafi to Paris with honors for a five-day official visit, allowing him to set up a Bedouin tent near the Elysee presidential palace. Many French people still remember that gesture, feeling Sarkozy went too far to please a dictator. Sarkozy said during the trial he would have preferred to “do without” Gadhafi’s visit at the time, but it came as a diplomatic gesture after Libya’s release of Bulgarian nurses who were imprisoned and facing death sentences for a crime they said they did not commit. Bulgarian nurses On July 24, […]