First modification:
The Paris Court of Appeals confirmed this Wednesday, May 17, a sentence of three years in prison against the former French president, after the president lost the appeal for a corruption case. However, the former head of state will not go to prison. Two years of the sentence were suspended and the remaining year will be under house arrest with the use of an electronic bracelet. The defense promises to take the case to the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest court.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy loses his appeal and his sentence to three years in prison for a corruption case is upheld. This was ruled by the Paris Court of Appeals this Wednesday, May 17.
In this way, the sentence that was issued against him is maintained, in 2021, under the charges of attempted bribery and influence peddling.
That case dates back to 2014, when, according to authorities, Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog tried to bribe magistrate Gilbert Azibert, then a senior counsel at the appeals court of the French Supreme Court.
#UPDATE A French court of appeals has upheld a prison sentence of three years, including two suspended, against former president Nicolas Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling.
The 68-year-old, president from 2007 to 2012, was also banned from public office for three… pic.twitter.com/F0QLyLicB7
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 17, 2023
According to the French Justice, both offered Azibert a position in the Council of State of Monaco in exchange for confidential information about an investigation against Sarkozy related to the accusations that the then head of state had accepted illegal payments from the heiress of L’ Oreal, Liliane Bettencourt, for her 2007 presidential campaign.
The wiretaps that exposed bribery
According to the authorities, the incident was discovered after wiretapping the then president. “I will help her, I will promote her,” Sarkozy would have stated in one of the dialogues, the inquiries pointed out.
Investigators accused the former president of “using secret telephone lines” to cover up his attempt to interfere in the actions of Justice.
Despite the fact that there would have been such an offer, the promise to Azibert was not fulfilled, according to information from the Monaco authorities. Reason why both the ex-governor and his lawyer claimed that they did not commit the crime of which they are accused.
But In issuing the sentence in the first instance, prosecutor Celine Guillet assured that it was established “with certainty” that Judge Azibert transmitted confidential information about the Bettencourt case to his friend Herzog.
In addition, the authorities have indicated that the offer to Azibert did not materialize because the parties involved would have noticed the telephone interceptions.
Known in France as the “wiretapping affair”, the bribery would have been discovered by chance, as by then the authorities were following up to corroborate or rule out Sarkozy’s involvement in another corruption case. It was about the suspicion of illegal financing for allegedly receiving millions of euros from then-Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi for his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy will not go to jail, but the defense will try to challenge the case
Sarkozy, who was in the Presidency between 2007 and 2012, continues to reject the accusations against him and in the last hours his legal team promised that it will seek a challenge before the Court of Cassation, the country’s highest court.
“Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent of the charges (…) We will not abandon this fight,” said his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont, after learning of the ratification of the sentence on Wednesday.
The former head of state will seek to refute the accusations that represented the first time in the modern era that a former French president was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to prison.
But the former president will not be behind bars. Two of the three years of the sentence were suspended and the remaining year may be served under house arrest.
In France, heJail sentences of one year or less are generally not served in prison if certain conditions are met, such as wearing an electronic bracelet, which will apply in Sarkozy’s case.
However, this is one of multiple legal cases Sarkoky is embroiled in, all related to alleged corruption.
Separately, at the end of 2021 he was convicted of illegal electoral financing in his unsuccessful bid for re-election in 2012.
Last week, the Prosecutor’s Office asked that he be tried for the case related to the illegal financing of the late Libyan leader Muammar al Gaddafi for the electoral campaign that took Sarkozy to the Elysée Palace in 2007.
With Reuters, AP and AFP