Tuesday, March 02, 2021

A materials science approach to combating coronavirus

New cerium molybdate material could be a game-changer in managing SARS-CoV-2

TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

IMAGE: (A) ANTIVIRAL ACTIVITY OF PREPARED POWDERS AGAINST CORONAVIRUS AND PHOTOGRAPHS SHOWING THE CHANGE IN PLAQUE NUMBER OF CORONAVIRUS AFTER FOUR HOURS: (B) CONTROL AND (C) WITH CMO. view more
CREDIT: MATERIAL LETTERS

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology working in collaboration with colleagues at the Kanagawa Institute of Industrial Science and Technology and Nara Medical University in Japan have succeeded in preparing a material called cerium molybdate (γ-Ce2Mo3O13 or CMO), which exhibits high antiviral activity against coronavirus.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the urgency not only of vaccine development and rollout but also of developing innovative materials and technologies with antiviral properties that could play a vital role in helping to contain the spread of the virus.

Conventional inorganic antimicrobial materials are often prepared with metals such as copper or photocatalysts such as titanium dioxide. However, metal-based materials can be prone to corrosion, and the effects of photocatalysts are usually limited under dark conditions.

Now, a research team led by Akira Nakajima of Tokyo Institute of Technology's Department of Materials Science and Engineering proposes a new type of an antiviral material that can overcome these drawbacks. The team successfully combined a relatively low-cost rare earth element cerium (Ce) with molybdenum (Mo), which is well known for its antibacterial effects, to prepare two types of cerium molybdate (Ce2Mo3O12 and γ-Ce2Mo3O13) in powder form.

Both powders exhibited antiviral activity against bacteriophage Φ6[1]. Notably, γ-Ce2Mo3O13 also exhibited high antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The researchers infer that an effective combination of cerium with the molybdate ion as well as the specific surface area[2] are key factors contributing to the observed antiviral activity.

The study builds on earlier work led by Nakajima which demonstrated the antiviral activity of a material named LMO (La2Mo2O9), composed of lanthanum (La) oxide and molybdenum oxide. LMO's activity, however, was found to be better against non-envelope-type (bacteriophage Qβ) than against envelope-type (bacteriophage Φ6) viruses. Subsequent tests showed that incorporating cerium into the material to make La1.8Ce0.2Mo2O9 (LCMO) improved antiviral activity against bacteriophage Φ6. It was this remarkable finding that spurred further investigations into cerium molybdates (CMO) as promising materials with high antiviral activity against envelope-type viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

To obtain the desired CMO powder samples with an almost single-crystal phase, the team conducted many trial experiments before successfully preparing Ce2Mo3O12 using the polymerizable complex method and γ-Ce2Mo3O13 through hydrothermal processing[3].

If standardized and mass-produced, CMO could be used in a wide range of materials such as resins, paper, thin films and paints. This would open up the possibility of using CMO coatings for high-contact surfaces such as door handles, straps inside vehicles, elevator buttons and escalator belts as well as walls, tiles and windows. Nakajima envisions that materials incorporating CMO could also be used in everyday items such as smartphones and clothing. He notes that applications for eye and face ware such as glasses and masks may take a little longer time to develop, but be on the horizon.

Scanning electron microscope image of CMO powder (IMAGE)

Technical terms

[1] bacteriophage Φ6: A member of the virus family Cystoviridae that has the rare distinction of having a lipid envelope. It is thus considered a useful surrogate for enveloped viruses and is often used as a model in studies investigating antiviral activity.

[2] specific surface area: Here referring to the total available surface area for adsorption of the virus.

[3] hydrothermal processing: A method harnessing the chemistry of hot water under pressure that enables effective dissolution, which can yield high-quality inorganic products.

CAPTION

Monk seal resting at one of the monitored caves in Karpaz Peninsula.

CREDIT

Damla Beton

CAPTION

Adult monk seal.

CREDIT

Huseyin Yorganci

Coffee for the birds: connecting

bird-watchers with shade-grown coffee

VIRGINIA TECH

Research News

Since 1970, bird populations in North America have declined by approximately 2.9 billion birds, a loss of more than one in four birds. Factors in this decline include habitat loss and ecosystem degradation from human actions on the landscape.

At the same time, enthusiasm for bird-watching has grown, with more than 45 million recreational participants in the United States alone. Now, researchers are looking into how to mobilize these bird enthusiasts to help limit bird population declines.

Enter bird-friendly coffee.

Bird-friendly coffee is certified organic, but its impact on the environment goes further than that: it is cultivated specifically to maintain bird habitats instead of clearing vegetation that birds and other animals rely on.

Researchers from Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment, Cornell University, and Columbia University explored whether bird-friendly coffee is on the radar of bird-watchers: are they drinking it and, if not, why not? The study results published in the journal People and Nature.

"We know bird-watchers benefit from having healthy, diverse populations of birds, and they tend to be conservation-minded folks," explained Assistant Professor Ashley Dayer of Virginia Tech's Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation. "My colleagues and I wanted to dig into this key audience to determine their interest in bird-friendly coffee."

Bird-friendly coffee is shade-grown, meaning that it is grown and harvested under the canopy of mature trees, a process that parallels how coffee was historically grown. But with most farms in Central and South America and the Caribbean converting to full-sun operations, crucial bird habitats for migrating and resident bird species are being lost.

"Over recent decades, most of the shade coffee in Latin America has been converted to intensively managed row monocultures devoid of trees or other vegetation," explained Amanda Rodewald, the Garvin Professor and senior director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "As a result, many birds cannot find suitable habitats and are left with poor prospects of surviving migration and successfully breeding."

Purchasing shade-grown coffee is one of seven simple actions that people can take as a step toward returning bird populations to their previous numbers. "But even simple actions are sometimes not taken by people who you would expect to be on board. Human behavior is complex -- driven by knowledge, attitudes, skills, and many other factors," explained Dayer, an affiliate of the Global Change Center housed in Virginia Tech's Fralin Life Sciences Institute.

The research team surveyed more than 900 coffee-drinking bird-watchers to understand bird-friendly coffee behavior among bird-watchers.

"One of the most significant constraints to purchasing bird-friendly coffee among those surveyed was a lack of awareness," said Alicia Williams, lead author and former research assistant at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Virginia Tech. "This includes limits on understanding what certifications exist, where to buy bird-friendly coffee, and how coffee production impacts bird habitat."

"I was surprised to see that only 9 percent of those surveyed purchased bird-friendly coffee and less than 40 percent were familiar with it," Williams added. "It was also interesting, though not surprising, that a large number of our respondents reported that the flavor or aroma of coffee was an important consideration in their coffee purchases, which could be a useful attribute of bird-friendly coffee to stress going forward."

The next step to increasing awareness about shade-grown coffee and its potential impact on bird populations may include increased advertising for bird-friendly coffee, more availability of bird-friendly coffee, and collaborations between public-facing conservation organizations and coffee distributors

CAPTION

Coffee pickers head to work on a shade-coffee farm in Antioquia, Colombia. Photo by Virginia Tech's Guillermo Santos.

Ecology: The scientific literature dominated by men and a handful of countries

CNRS

Research News

Publishing in peer-reviewed scientific journals is crucial for the development of a researcher's career. The scientists that publish the most often in the most prestigious journals generally acquire greater renown, as well as higher responsibilities. However, a team involving two CNRS researchers* has just shown that the vast majority of scientific articles in the fields of ecology and conservation biology are authored by men working in a few Western countries. They represent 90% of the 1,051 authors that have published the most frequently in the 13 major scientific journals in the field since 1945. Three quarters of these men are affiliated with institutions in just five countries (the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Germany). However, there are signs of improvement, as women are increasingly among the authors that publish the most, representing 18% of the youngest authors, whereas they represent only 3% of the oldest ones. The geographic diversity of the countries in which authors work also increased markedly by 15% since 1980. Published in Conservation Letters on 2 March 2021, this study calls for combating the process of discrimination engendered by the publication system by proposing concrete measures to halt the overrepresentation of men and Western countries.

###

*- Laurent Godet from the Coastline, Environment, Geomatics, and Teledetection laboratory (CNRS/EPHE/Université de Bretagne occidentale/Université de Caen Normandie/Université d'Angers/Université de Nantes) and Vincent Devictor from the Institute of Evolution Sciences of Montpellier. (CNRS/IRD/EPHE/Université de Montpellier).

Facebook launches climate project to tackle misinformation

After coming under fire for not doing enough to stop climate myths from spreading on its site, Facebook will now add info labels to climate change posts and direct users to a fact-checked website. But is it enough?

Vetted, proven research on climate change will be displayed

on Facebook posts to combat misinformation

Facebook has started tackling dangerous climate change myths and anti-environment propaganda that circulates among the platform's almost 3 billion monthly users.

In a new trial that was launched in the UK in late February, posts about climate change will now automatically be labelled with an information banner that directs people to accurate climate science data at the company's Climate Science Information Center.

"We do recognize that we have a bigger role to play when it comes to informing people accurately about climate change,” Alexandru Voica from Facebook's tech communication team told DW.

"This will make users more aware of what information they share," he said.
Debunking climate myths

The Climate Science Information Center, which uses research that has been vetted by leading scientific organizations, also has a climate-myth-busting unit that actively debunks false information circulating online.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, here giving testimony to the US Senate, has come under increased scrutiny over his site's role in the spread of false information

It explains, for instance, that the decline of polar bear populations is actually caused by rising temperatures, that global warming is not just part of a natural cycle of temperature fluctuation and that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere harms Earth's plant life.

Misinformation about climate change is not new, but experts believe it has been greatly amplified in the new digital world, where the topic is increasingly polarizing.

"Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the most relevant infrastructure for information these days," Markus Beckedahl, editor-in-chief of Netzpolitik, a German platform advocating the digital right to freedom, told DW.

"These companies have a monopoly and dominate the market when it comes to how people get informed, communicate and debate society. That's why they carry a huge responsibility."
Fighting climate change starts with fighting misinformation around it

Research has shown that the best way to counteract the politicization of science is to convey the high-level consensus among experts about the reality of human‐caused climate change.

That's why Facebook's UK-based trial is putting short, corrective messages into posts containing climate-change misinformation. These messages include information like the fact that 97% of the world's scientific community agree that global warming is real and caused by humans.

Is this enough to stop misinformation?

Climate misinformation claimed Australia's devastating Black Summer fires were caused by arson

Behavior and communication experts from George Mason University, the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the University of Cambridge helped advise Facebook on how best to debunk such climate myths in a way that is tailored to the psychology of misinformation. Dr. Sander van der Linden is one of the experts behind the UK trial.

"One common error that we often see media outlets make, for instance, is to prominently repeat the myth in an attempt to debunk it. But that tends to strengthen people's mental associations with the myths and people kind of forget about the correction," van der Linden, who is a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge, told DW.

So instead of repeating the myths, they start by stating the facts.

The next step "is not to argue with people over the specifics, but to actually show what's misleading about the presentation of a particular argument and what the underlying technique is."
Social media business model a 'catalyst for misinformation'

The Climate Science Information Center was launched in the US, Germany, the UK, and France last year and was just expanded to Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, India, Indonesia and Taiwan. If the UK trial goes well, these countries could see climate information banners and corrective message next, says Voica.

"We'll need to see the results from the UK tests first before we either expand the test or we make it into a real feature."

Watch video 05:31 Busting climate myths

But for Markus Beckedahl, the climate misinformation trial comes years too late. He believes social media giants haven't done enough in the past years to combat misinformation. On the contrary, he says, they have actually promoted it through their own business model of collecting data and selling ads to keep people on the site.

"And the easiest way to do that is by showing content that creates emotions and anger. That's why disinformation and conspiracy theories have been shared and promoted massively on these sites in past years," he said.
Opinion loophole makes fact-checking even harder

Facebook has been coming under increasing pressure in recent years for failing to weed out false information, including myths about the climate crisis.

"The future of our planet is at stake, and there should be no company too big, too powerful, and too opaque to be held accountable for its role in the climate crisis. Facebook is no exception," US Senator Elizabeth Warren and her colleagues wrote in a statement last year.

One way the company tried to combat this problem is by outsourcing fact-checking to more than 80 independent organizations, including journalists who review and rate public Facebook and Instagram posts.

"Fact-checking posts is often very complex. There are some parts that are true, others that are not. So there is a need for explanation; this is why we need the expertise of journalists to do this work," Basak Tezcan, who leads Facebook's sustainability team in Germany, told DW.

Different Facebook labels designed to stop the spread of fake news

Climate deniers have been quick to cite recent snowfall as 'proof' that the planet is not warming

Content that has been rated false or altered will be labelled and will be limited in its distribution. It won't be deleted, though, unless it contributes to "the risk of imminent violence or physical harm,” according to Facebook's Community Guidelines.

Here's the catch, though: "The fact-checking program is not meant to interfere with individual expression or debate," which means that opinion and speech from politicians, for example, isn't necessarily subjected to a fact check.

This has led to a backlash from climate activists, saying the policy is a huge loophole for climate change deniers.
Pre-bunking instead of debunking

Considering the risk to society of climate misinformation, van der Linden believes Facebook's climate misinformation trial is at least a small step in the right direction.

Dr. Sander van der Linden has been researching how people form (mis)perceptions of the social world

In the future, van der Linden hopes Facebook will work not just on debunking, but also "pre-bunking." In his previous research he has found that facts about scientific consensus can also be used to "pre-bunk" — pre-emptively debunk — the public against climate misinformation.

"Once people are exposed to a falsehood already, it's so much more difficult to undo the damage. So the better thing is a pre-bunk."

Another question is whether, as Beckedahl sees it, tech giants will agree to give independent scientists and government agencies access to their internal data so they can better understand how misinformation and climate myths spread exactly and what impact this has on society and our planet.

"Right now, it's a big black box, and the only ones who know what's really going on are the tech giants themselves — and they won't share their information. And that's a huge and dangerous asymmetry of power.

THEY NEED A KERALA LIKE LIBERATION MOVEMENT
Superstition keeps Kashmir's tribal women from accessing birth control

Women in Kashmir's nomadic tribal communities are often married as teenagers and end up having multiple children they can't support, as their husbands forbid access to birth control.

Research has shown that tribal women in Kashmir

are more prone to high-risk pregnancies

Rukaiya Jan, a woman from the Gujjar tribal community in Kashmir, was married at 15 years old, a common practice among Kashmir's nomadic herders.

Now 35, Jan has six children. The birth of her seventh baby, a girl, ended in tragedy, as the newborn died near a hospital gate several miles away from her home. Jan was unable to reach the hospital in time.

Jan lives in a mountainous region at Fraknar village in Kashmir's central district of Ganderbal, where temporary huts housing hundreds of tribal families dot the hillsides.

She had discussed taking birth control with her husband, but she was not given permission. Jan is forbidden to attend family planning consultation because of social stigmas and religious beliefs in her family.

"My husband never allowed me to go for family planning because it is not allowed in our religion and our community's faith," Jan told DW at her home in the village.

"This has deteriorated my health because we live in poverty and do not have proper access to healthcare," she said.

The road to Jan's home is hilly and the harsh winter conditions make it tough to access hospitals.

Jan says poverty and multiple births have worn down her health. She suffers from thyroid problems, high blood sugar levels and heavy periods.

"My blood sugar goes to 300. I feel very weak. I get heavy periods, I did a treatment but still, I am not feeling healthy," she said. "I believe multiple births played a role in deteriorating my health."

Rukaiya Jan told DW that she is forbidden to attend

family planning consultation

Family planning forbidden

"I had two daughters in two years, there was no gap … my last child died at the hospital gate, it could not survive," she said.

"It is good to go for family planning because unwanted pregnancies affect the health of women like it affected mine," she added.

Jan said women in her community have five to eight children on average because there are fear and stigma associated with even discussing family planning. However, as more women in the community learn about reproductive health, many of them are demanding control over their bodies.

Thousands of tribal women from the Gujjar-Bakarwal communities in Indian-administered Kashmir live in poverty. The tough mountainous terrain of the Himalayas comes without easy access to health care, sanitation, proper roads and basic amenities.

In many cases, the women are carried on cots on a tough journey to hospitals during childbirth. This puts the life of both mother and child at risk.
Kashmir's tribal lifestyles

Members of tribal communities in this region live a migratory lifestyle and walk hundreds of miles twice a year with their cattle herds in search of greener pastures.

Male tribal members usually forbid family planning, either citing religious reasons for their belief against the birth, or the need to ensure enough labor at home to work rearing of cattle.

Gujjars are the third-largest ethnic group in Jammu and Kashmir, behind the Kashmiri and Ladakhi ethnic groups. They constitute more than 20% of the territory's population, according to a government census.

In another village in Ganderbal district called Hillpati, 40-year-old Zubaida Begum has given birth to eight children. She used to accept that tribal women had to live without family planning, but now, her point of view has changed.

Begum said she never had the courage to discuss family planning with her husband, who works as a laborer, knowing the stigma associated with the topic in her conservative family.

Zubaida Begum says she never had the courage to discuss family planning with her husband

Now she believes women should have difficult discussions in their homes for the sake of health.

"I never talked to my husband about family planning because my father-in-law was a religious preacher, he never encouraged anyone to go for family planning," said Begum.

"I was not sure if we would be able to take care of the children, she added. "The repeated childbirth year after year affected my health, we live in poverty so it is more difficult to take care of multiple things," she said.

Begum points out that health workers now visit villages to speak with young women about family planning and unwanted pregnancies.

"Young girls do listen and they do want to take care of health and go for family planning, unlike us who feared to talk about it," she said.
More sex education needed

Many women in the tribal areas say there is no concept of safe sex among them, as there are superstitions attached to using protection.

Unprotected sex results in sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancies.

Shameema Begum, 30, said she believes protected sex "causes infections."

"My husband has never used any protection. I have four children, two sons and two daughters, and we never think about keeping a gap among the children, nor do we use protection. Everyone says that using protection causes infection," she said.

"Even the birth control pills we believe are not good, so we do not take them, no one in our community takes them."

The heavy influx of tourists this year has given new cheer to the people of India-administered Kashmir. It is a dramatic change for the tourism industry in the disputed region, which faced the double whammy of the coronavirus pandemic and harsh curbs on civil rights New Delhi imposed in the region in August 2019.

Research has shown that tribal women in Kashmir are more prone to high-risk pregnancies, as high fertility rates combine with low access to maternity healthcare.

Sobia Jan, a researcher on maternal mortality at the University of Kashmir, told DW that tribal women in Kashmir are forbidden to make their own decisions about birth control.

"These kinds of decisions are made by their husbands or sometimes by their in-laws," said Jan. "Due to low education, religious taboos are used to stop women from family planning, despite critical health conditions said Jan.

A senior gynecologist at the region's largest maternity facility, Lal Ded hospital in Srinagar, said the number of children tribal women have poses serious health risks.

"When we refer these tribal women to the family planning section, their husbands do not allow them, despite warnings of the huge health risks for the women after three or four births," the doctor told DW anonymously. "The women end up giving birth to eight or nine children."

Javaid Rahi, general secretary of tribal research in Jammu and Kashmir, said multiple factors keep the tribal people away from using family planning.

"Tribal people consider family planning as anti-faith, the other is that the tribal people live a migratory lifestyle and they have to walk with their cattle. They prefer more children means more human resources to take care of the cattle," Rahi told DW.

He added that families with more children are considered stronger and better respected in the community.

"The social setup allows and encourages more children in the community. The point is, women are not even allowed to think about or have an opinion about whether or not to have children."

Unfolding nomadism? A feminist political ecology of ...

https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/23600

A feminist political ecology of sedentarization in the Attappady Hills, Kerala The landscape of the Attappady Hills in the Nilgiri range of Kerala, South India, is home to several Adivasis or indigenous peoples and settler communities, and has had intermittent cycles of agrarian crisis and sufficiency, according to colonial accounts from the early 20th century.

Author: Deepa Kozhisseri, Sudhir Chella Rajan

Publish Year: 2020

Discovering the First Generation of Feminists in Kerala

https://thewire.in/women/discovering-the-first-generation-of-feminists-in-kerala

2019-02-17 · Discovering the First Generation of Feminists in Kerala. There is a whole forgotten generation of defiant Malayali women from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

J. Devika – Activist, social critic, and feminist from Kerala

https://mywordsnthoughts.com/myworld/all-about-kerala/j-devika...

Her Self: Early Writings on Gender by Malayalee Women 1898-1938 is one of her early works in feminism through which she translated some writings by first-generation feminists in Kerala. She is also fully engaged in her research works related to social status of women in different eras, contemporary political and social issues etc

New Hub for Gender Equality Strategizing Established in Kerala

https://philanthropywomen.org/feminist-strategy/new-hub-for-gender-equality...

The Gender Campus in Kozhikode, Kerala was inaugurated by Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan on Feb 14 th.The ceremony marked the functional launch of projects, programmes and completed facilities at the campus, where the second edition of the International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE II) was held from 11-13 Feb, 2021.

Class Feminism: The Kudumbashree Agitation in Kerala

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23391275 · PDF file

Ihe women's movement in Kerala reflects the value system, demands J. and methods of agitation of dif ferent strands of feminism. Socialist femi nism is not dominant in Kerala despite the fact that the women's wing of the Com munist Party of India (Marxist) - cpi(m) has a large membership, and debates relating to third generation feminism

Muslim Women Entrepreneurs in Kerala: Socialist Feminist ...

https://publications.waset.org/abstracts/63566/muslim-women...

Authors: Nabilah Haniph Abstract: This paper tries to examine the social and economic conditions of women entrepreneurs from the Muslim community in Kerala. It also tries to explain the problems faced by these entrepreneurs in the light of socialist feminist approach for …

Opinion: In France, no one is above the law

The verdict against former President Nicolas Sarkozy is a signal. France's ruling class has long been used to going unpunished — The verdict serves democracy, says Barbara Wesel.

A photo from better times for Nicolas Sarkozy: Shaking hands with

Libya's dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2007

It's not as if Nicolas Sarkozy has to go to jail with drug dealers and car thieves. If his sentence is upheld on appeal, he can stay in the comfort of his own home with an ankle bracelet. His wife, the singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, can play him a song on the guitar with a chorus that goes: "You can do a lot of things, just don't get caught."

So much piled up over time in the Sarkozy era. While the French were amused by the details of his love life, his political activities only emerged later. He was convicted because the court considers it proven that he bribed an attorney general in 2014 to obtain information about an investigation.

DW's Barbara Wesel

Presidency of scandals

It was all there, from burner phones and wiretapped calls, to a luxury posting in Monaco — the court files have enough material for a fine screenplay. And that's not all: In an earlier trial, Sarkozy was acquitted on charges of having accepted undeclared donations for his election campaign from Liliane Bettencourt, the L'Oreal heiress. The allegations were a burden for years.

And the judiciary is not even done with the ex-president yet.

A trial for illegally financing his 2007 presidential campaign begins in two weeks. Sarkozy allegedly received €50 million ($60 million) from former Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi, of all people. Another investigation is looking into his consulting work for a Russian company, including awkward questions about employing his first wife as a staff member.

Sarkozy is the second former president to be convicted by a French court. In 2011, Jacques Chirac was convicted of embezzlement and misuse of public money when he was mayor of Paris. The most spectacular trial, however, was probably that against Francois Fillon, who paid his wife a salary as an employee for years even though she never worked. The verdict destroyed the conservative presidential candidate's career and opened the door for Emmanuel Macron.

Accepting benefits as an official privilege

Things were different just a few decades ago. Charges against Valery d'Estaing of accepting diamonds from the notorious Central African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa, came to nothing. And somehow, people just accepted the fact that Francois Mitterrand set up his mistress and their daughter in a state apartment guarded by police officers. For a long time, different rules applied to the ruling class in France. That is the reason the French are so angry at their politicians.

Sarkozy was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge by offering to help him land a top job in Monaco

For several years now, the judiciary has increasingly prosecuted offenses committed by politicians that would have previously been swept under the carpet. The public's expectation of a fair trial against everyday people and those with power has risen. Old ties are offering less and less protection — the recent sexual assault investigations against Paris society bigwigs points to a change in climate.

Hardly any chance of a comeback

Of course, judicial proceedings, like the one against Sarkozy, are also fraught with danger. After all, it was he himself who claimed the whole thing was a witch hunt. And, it is entirely possible to exploit such trials against politicians from the other side purely for political gain. It will then need to be proven just how objectively and independently the judiciary goes about its business.

The verdict is a blow for the ex-president. It is said he flirted with the idea of making a political comeback in next spring's presidential election, as the conservatives are without a credible candidate. Sarkozy can of course continue to pull strings within his party but campaigning for the presidency with a criminal record will be difficult. Nevertheless, the verdict against him is a sign that no one is above the law. It is an important sign to those frustrated and disillusioned in France.

This article was translated from German

French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy found guilty of corruption

Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of trying to bribe a judge by offering to help him land a top job in Monaco. The former president, who led France between 2007 and 2012, has been sentenced to time in prison.

Despite being handed a prison sentence, it's unlikely that Sarkozy will spend time behind bars

Judges on Monday found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption after he tried to bribe a top lawyer with the promise of a job in Monaco.

The ruling marks the second time in France's modern history that a former president has been convicted on corruption charges.
What did the court say?

The former French leader was sentenced to three years — one year in prison and a suspended sentence of two years.

However, the court said Sarkozy can to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet.

The court said the promises Sarkozy made were "particularly serious" given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest.

The court added that, as a former lawyer, he was "perfectly informed" over what constituted an illegal act.

The 66-year-old has faced multiple graft accusations since leaving office in 2012 and prosecutors successfully argued he tried to obtain information about a separate probe into alleged financial impropriety in his party. He did so by offering to help judge Gilbert Azibert secure a well-paid legal adviser role in the principality of Monaco.

Nicolas Sarkozy is the first modern French head of state to actually appear in court

Sarkozy told the court he had "never committed the slightest act of corruption."

The graft and influence-peddling charges — among several legal cases against him — carried a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of up to €1 million ($1.2 million).

What was the case against Sarkozy?

The case for the prosecution rested on conversations between Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog.

It is known as the "wiretapping case" in France, because investigators tapped phone calls between the pair in 2013 and 2014.

They were investigating claims that Sarkozy took illicit payments from the L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

Liliane Bettencourt's links with Sarkozy were under investigation at the time

He used the fake alias "Paul Bismuth" during the calls in which he discussed Judge Azibert with Herzog.

The ex-president is reportedly heard saying: "I'll get him promoted, I'll help him."

Prosecutor Celine Guillet said it had been established "with certainty" that judge Azibert transmitted confidential information about the Bettencourt case to his friend Herzog.

One conversation "overwhelmingly" showed that Sarkozy had promised to intervene to get Azibert a post in Monaco, she said.

Sarkozy's lawyer Jacqueline Laffont lashed out at the flaws and "emptiness" of the prosecutor's accusations. She said the tapped conversations had just been "chats between friends."

Lawyers for the former head of state also point out that Azibert never landed a job in Monaco, but prosecutors argue that French law says an offer or promise can constitute corruption.
What is the significance of the ruling?

DW correspondent Lisa Louis, who was present at the court in Paris, said Monday's ruling is "a real blow" for the former French president.

"Sarkozy was hoping that he would win symbolic points today — that hasn't worked," she said.

"Certainly this will have a huge impact on his political career," Louis said.

Sarkozy had hoped to stage a political comeback for next year's presidential elections, but "that now seems quite unlikely," Louis added.

Ziad Takieddine has since withdraan the allegations he made against the ex-French president.

Are there other cases pending?

Sarkozy has been swamped with legal woes since he left office. He was eventually cleared of the charges against him in the Bettencourt affair.

But a probe into allegations that he received millions of euros from Libya to fund his 2007 presidential campaign is ongoing.

At that time, the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi was in power.

Sarkozy's main accuser, the French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, has since retracted his claim of delivering suitcases full of cash from the Libyan leader.

The long-running legal travails helped sink Sarkozy's comeback bid for the 2017 presidential vote.

Trained-lawyer Sarkozy says the French judiciary bears a grudge against him over his attempts to limit judges' powers during his time in office.

He retired from politics in 2018, but the former president made a series of public appearances last summer to promote his new book.

Lines of fans queued at bookstores all over France to have him sign his latest memoirs, The Time of Storms, which topped bestseller lists for weeks.

jf, jsi/msh (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

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Tuesday, March 02, 2021

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