Sarkozy faces verdict after key accuser dies

A Paris court will rule this week whether former French president Nicolas Sarkozy accepted illegal campaign financing from late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi, after his key accuser died on Tuesday in Beirut.

Thursday's verdict represents another critical juncture for Sarkozy, who denies the charges. The 70-year-old, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France's highest honour.

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