Hearing after hearing, the clouds have been gathering over former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's defense. On Monday, February 17, his lawyers hit on a way to return fire – an excerpt from a seemingly innocuous but apparently promising conversation between Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and Sarkozy, sent anonymously via an encrypted messaging service. Through a series of obscure deductions, it supposedly proves that Libya did not finance the right-wing candidate's 2007 presidential campaign.

Christophe Ingrain, one of Sarkozy's lawyers, solemnly took the stand, profoundly aware of the gravity of the moment. He explained that, a little over a month ago, he had received an encrypted email via the Proton messaging service which contained "extremely important information". He said: "For the first time, we can provide a concrete element." In this message, the anonymous correspondent claims that "the famous Mediapart memo is a forgery" – referring to the 2006 memo from Moussa Koussa published by the investigative website. It it, the former head of Libya's foreign intelligence services gave the green light to €50 million in financing for Sarkozy's campaign.

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