​​​​​​​ISTANBUL 

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's defense team delivered a robust plea for his acquittal on the final day of a trial over alleged Libyan campaign financing, criticizing prosecutors, broadcaster BFMTV reported on Tuesday.

Jean-Michel Darrois, Sarkozy's attorney, criticized the approach of state prosecutors, suggesting they were more focused on public opinion than judicial impartiality.

"Why has the prosecution been so harsh, so far removed from its mission? Because it was addressing the court of public opinion," Darrois told the panel of judges.

The remarks follow prosecutors’ March 27 request for a seven-year prison sentence, a €300,000 (328,173) fine, and a five-year ineligibility period for Sarkozy.

Sarkozy faces charges of illegal campaign financing, passive corruption, concealment of embezzled public funds, and conspiracy.​

The prosecution characterized an alleged 2005 agreement between Sarkozy, then-interior minister, and then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi as a "pact of corruption inconceivable, unheard of, indecent."

Darrois contends that no such corrupt agreement existed.

"They want to maintain the image of a dishonest, greedy Nicolas Sarkozy, disrespectful of the republic's rules," he said.

"You will never, never find not a single euro, but not a single Libyan cent, in my campaign," Sarkozy said in defense at the start of the trial.

The former president last December was sentenced to a year in prison for corruption and influence peddling. He now wears an electronic bracelet and is appealing to the European Court of Human Rights.

The court will not rule on Sarkozy's guilt or innocence for several months.