Mediapart in English

French TV personality and psychoanalyst Gérard Miller faces criminal probe over rape and sexual assault

France — Investigation

Gérard Miller au festival de Cannes en 2019. © Photo Fred Dugit / Le Parisien / PhotoPQR via MaxPPP

The well-known psychoanalyst and broadcaster Gérard Miller was formally placed under investigation on October 2nd, in connection with four allegations of rape – three involving minors – and two claims of sexual assault, committed between 2000 and 2020. He was also designated an assisted witness – an intermediate status in French law between that of a witness and a formal suspect - in connection with the alleged rape of a minor over the age of 15.

France and the US lack 'political will' to fight corruption says former judge Eva Joly

France — Interview

Eva Joly en 2024. © Photo Didier Allard / Ina via AFP

A former investigating judge specializing in financial crime, Eva Joly also stood as the green candidate in the 2012 presidential election in France. Here she tells Mediapart of her concern at the attacks on judges after the recent conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy for conspiracy over the Libyan funding affair, and highlights the lack of effort by the media to help people understand the issues involved in that case. The ex-judge also expresses her dismay over the apathy of the French Left – and the Democrats in the United States - when it comes to issues of corruption and public probity.

'Macron was elected as a minority president and still is - but he acts as if he wasn't'

Politique — Interview

Jacques Toubon in Paris in September 2025. © Photos Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

In an interview with Mediapart, France's former human rights ombudsman Jacques Toubon has urged the president and his political allies to cede part of their power in order that a government with a working majority can be constructed. Himself a former politician of the Right, Toubon warns of the risk of a far-right victory if new snap parliamentary elections were to be held. And the ex-Défenseur des droits also regrets the fact that the Right has nothing left to offer but a long drawn-out contest with Marine Le Pen's far-right Rassemblement National.

Personne n’y comprend rien

The film co-produced by Mediapart, now available through VOD.

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Sarkozy-Gaddafi court case: ten questions to help understand an historic verdict

France — Analysis

Nicolas Sarkozy et Carla Bruni au Tribunal de justice de Paris, le 2( septembre 2025. © Xose Bouzas / Hans Lucas via AFP

Mediapart has analysed the 400 pages of the court judgement that saw ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, his former senior aides Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux, middleman Alexandre Djouhri and others convicted in the Libyan funding case on September 25th. Once set out, the facts and the law show a clarity that has got lost amid the chaotic political and media reaction, which has been both false and overblown.

France is finally tackling state crime

France — Opinion

Nicolas Sarkozy après sa condamnation dans l’affaire du financement libyen de sa campagne pour l’élection présidentielle de 2007. © Photo Xose Bouzas pour Mediapart

Political and financial crime is one of the French Republic’s best-kept secrets. It poisons the state quietly, to the detriment of the citizens who have to pay the price. That is why the judgement handed down on September 25th in the Libyan funding affair involving former president Nicolas Sarkozy and other high-profile defendants is of vital importance, writes Mediapart’s publishing editor in this op-ed article.

Nicolas Sarkozy jailed for criminal conspiracy over Libyan election funding scandal

France

© Photo Xose Bouzas pour Mediapart

In an historic verdict, the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been given a five-year jail term after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy over a plan to accept money from Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime to fund his 2007 election campaign. Sarkozy, 70, was also fined 100,000 euros and banned from public office for five years. The court made clear that the former head of state will have to serve time behind bars even if he appeals. He was meanwhile acquitted of charges of corruption, the receipt of the proceeds of the misappropriation of public funds, and illegal campaign financing. Sarkozy's conviction follows ten years of judge-led investigations into the affair, and investigations by Mediapart which go back to 2011.

The Garden and the Jungle
How the West Sees the World

Edwy Plenel’s far-ranging critique of Europe’s betrayal of universal values and equal rights as war and right-wing populism spread worldwide.

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Sarkozy-Gaddafi funding trial: a serpentine ten-year investigation

International

Nicolas Sarkozy accueille Mouammar Kadhafi au palais de l’Élysée, le 10 décembre 2007. © Picture Sébastien Calvet / Mediapart

The verdicts and sentences were announced on Thursday at the end of the trial of Nicolas Sarkozy and 11 co-defendants over their roles in the alleged funding of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election bid by the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The ten-year judicial investigation, and Mediapart’s own investigations over a period of 14 years, have seen ups and downs along the way, and here and there some surprising outcomes. Graham Tearse looks back on the different developments and how the “Gaddafi-Sarkozy funding affair” became an epic legal marathon.

Ziad Takieddine, the final judgement: key figure in Sarkozy-Libya case dies two days before court verdict

France

Ziad Takieddine à Paris, le 7 octobre 2019. © Photo Denis Allard / REA

A key figure in the Karachi and Sarkozy-Gaddafi scandals, the middleman Ziad Takieddine died on Tuesday, September 23rd, at a hospital in Beirut. His death in the Lebanese capital came just two days before a court in Paris delivers its long-awaited verdict in the trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy and other defendants – including Takieddine himself - over the Libyan-French presidential election funding affair. Fabrice Arfi and Karl Laske report.

Sex-tape and the city hall: French mayor on trial over blackmail of his deputy

France — Investigation

Le maire de Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau, à son arrivée au tribunal correctionnel de Lyon, le 22 septembre 2025. © Photo Matthieu Delaty / Hans Lucas via AFP

Gaël Perdriau, mayor of the city of Saint-Étienne in south-east France, stood trial on September 22nd for his role in a homophobic blackmail plot against his own deputy, who was secretly filmed with a male escort in an hotel room. In the dock alongside him are three former close associates of the rightwing mayor, who all turned on him during the judicial investigation that led to these proceedings. Antton Rouget reports on the background to an extraordinary trial that is expected to last a week.

French study reveals high pesticide exposure for vineyard neighbours

France — Report

Lucas Rapin à Preignac (Gironde), le 14 septembre 2025. © Photo Amélie Poinssot / Mediapart

A study published this week by two French health agencies details a well-above-average exposure to pesticides of residents who live close to vineyards, as illustrated in urine and hair samples, and others of ambient and household air, dust and home-grown vegetables. The study was originally prompted by an unusual cluster of child cancer cases discovered in a wine-growing area of south-west France, one of which concerned Lucas Rapin (pictured) when he was aged five, and who now lives with the debilitating side effects of his successful treatment for leukaemia. Amélie Poinssot reports on the findings of the study, and hears from Rapin and his mother about their arduous experience.