In September, a lower court found the right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, guilty of trying to acquire funds from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that led to his election.
Sarkozy, who has denied any wrongdoing, was booked into a Paris prison in October, where he served 20 days before being released pending his appeal.
The 71-year-old entered the Paris Court of Appeal before Monday’s hearing, shaking hands with police officers and lawyers before taking a seat in the front row of the dock.
In the new trial, which will last until June 3, the former head of state is once again considered innocent.
Sarkozy has faced a series of legal problems since leaving office and has already received two final convictions in other cases.
In one, he wore an electronic ankle tag for several months, until it was removed in May of last year after he was convicted of trying to obtain favors from a judge.
And in the other, he will have to serve more time for illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election bid.
In the so-called “Libio case”, he has appealed a sentence of five years in prison.
In September, a lower court convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy for what it said was a scheme to acquire Libyan financing for his 2007 presidential campaign.
But it did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used campaign funds.
His legal team immediately appealed, but the lower court ordered him to be sent behind bars, citing the “exceptional severity” of the sentence.
On October 21, he became the first former head of a European Union state to be imprisoned.
Prison diaries
At the initial trial, prosecutors had argued that Sarkozy’s advisers, acting on his behalf, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally finance his victorious presidential bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help restoring his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombings of a passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, which killed hundreds of passengers.
Members of Sarkozy’s circle declined to comment ahead of the retrial.
Sarkozy published a hastily written book about his time in prison titled “Diary of a Prisoner,” and his supporters lined up around a Paris block to buy a copy when it came out in December.
In the 216-page book, he recounts his mundane struggles with noise and low-quality food.
But he also hints at a possible alliance between the traditional right-wing Republican party he once led and the country’s main far-right party to “rebuild the right.”
He and his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni, face another possible trial over allegations that they tried to bribe a key prosecution witness in the Libya campaign finance case with the help of a paparazzi boss. They deny any wrongdoing.
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