PARIS — Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy goes on trial Wednesday over claims of illicit financing for his failed 2012 re-election bid, just weeks after a landmark conviction for corruption.
On March 1, the 66-year-old became France’s first post-war president to be sentenced to prison when he was given a three-year term, two years of which were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling.
That case was one of several hanging over him since he left office.
Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing, saying he is the victim of a vindictive judicial system with which he tangled while in power between 2007 and 2012.
In the trial opening Wednesday, which he is not expected…
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