Wednesday, May 17, 2023

French court upholds three-year sentence for ex-president Sarkozy in wiretapping case
















Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy leaves the courthouse after the ruling in his appeal trial on May 17, 2023. 
© Bertrand Guay, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24
Issued on: 17/05/2023 -

France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy lost his case on Wednesday against a 2021 conviction for corruption and influence peddling at the Paris Court of Appeals. The court upheld a sentence of three years with two years suspended; he will wear an electronic bracelet for the remaining year instead of going to prison. Sarkozy has vowed to appeal the verdict at France’s Supreme Court.

The 68-year-old, who served one term from 2007 to 2012, has been embroiled in legal troubles ever since leaving office.

In March 2021 he was sentenced to three years in prison – two of them suspended and one at home with an electronic bracelet – for corruption and influence peddling through a secret telephone line that was discovered through wiretapping.

The court found that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a "corruption pact" with a judge, Gilbert Azibert, to obtain and share information about a legal investigation.it

Investigators had wiretapped Sarkozy's two official phone lines. They discovered that he had a third unofficial one taken out in 2014 under the name "Paul Bismuth", through which he communicated with Herzog.

The contents of these phone calls led to the 2021 corruption verdict. Sarkozy contested the accusations and immediately appealed against his conviction.

On the first day of the appeals hearing in December last year, he said he had "never corrupted anybody".

His conversations with Herzog have now been played in court for the first time and were central in determining Wednesday's ruling.

The prosecutor's office had requested that Sarkozy, Herzog and Azibert each be handed a three-year suspended sentence.

They had also asked for Sarkozy and Azibert, 76, to be suspended from public office and Herzog, 67, to be banned from practising law, each for five years.


04:00 Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (C) arrives at the courthouse with his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont for the appeal hearing of a corruption trial at Paris courthouse on May 17, 2023. 
© Bertrand Guay, AFP


Two other cases

The so-called Bismuth case is just one of several pursuing the man dubbed the "hyper-president" while in office.

Sarkozy will be retried on appeal from November 2023 in the so-called Bygmalion case, which saw him sentenced to one year in prison at first instance.

The prosecution accused Sarkozy's team of spending nearly double the legal limit on his lavish 2012 re-election campaign, using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion. He has denied any wrongdoing.

And French prosecutors on Thursday demanded he face a new trial over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.

France's financial crimes prosecutors said Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over accusations they sought millions of euros in financing from the regime of then Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for his ultimately victorious campaign.

Sarkozy is accused of corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds but has always rejected all the charges.

Investigating magistrates are to have the last word on whether or not that trial goes ahead.

Despite his legal problems, Sarkozy still enjoys considerable influence and popularity on the right of French politics and has the ear of incumbent President Emmanuel Macron.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)


French prosecutors seek trial against Sarkozy over Libya

May 12, 2023

The scandal-plagued Nicolas Sarkozy is yet again under prosecutors' radar for accepting millions in illegal campaign funds from former Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi.

French prosecutors, on Thursday, called for a fresh trial against former President Nicolas Sarkozy and 12 of his associates for allegedly using illegal political donations from Libya to finance his 2007 election campaign.

The 68-year-old is accused of embezzling public funds, bribery, criminal association and illegal campaign financing, the public prosecutor's office announced in a statement.

What are the details of the case?

Sarkozy allegedly received millions of euros that had illegally hailed from the regime of former Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi to campaign for the 2007 French elections, which he ultimately won.

Early in his time as president, Sarkozy maintained comparatively friendly ties with Libya, for instance inviting Gadhafi for a controversial state visit in 2009. But in 2011, amid pressure about his ties to the Libyan regime and amid its repression of domestic unrest, he put France at the forefront of the Western-led campaign to overthrow him.

Former budget minister Eric Woerth, Sarkozy's right hand man Claude Gueant and ex-minister Brice Hortefeux are some of the others named in the charges.

It is unclear if and when the trial will take place since a prosecutor's demand is just the first step on the route to a court hearing in France's legal system. Investigating judges must concur that the case warrants prosecution after prosecutors say they believe they have a case to pursue.

A witness emerged in 2016, saying that in late 2006 or early 2007 he had brought several suitcases prepared by the Libyan regime — with $5 million (€5.5 million) in it — and delivered it to the Interior Ministry in Paris, which was led by Sarkozy at the time. The former president who occupied the Elysee Palace between 2007 and 2012, has always denied these claims.

However, the Libya affair is not the only scandal Sarkozy faces. He was previously sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, for bribery and undue influence. The result of Sarkozy's appeal in that case is due next week. He is also appealing a conviction for campaign fraud, made in 2021.

He is the first former president of France to be sentenced to prison for offenses committed during and after his term in office, although famously Jacques Chirac was also convicted — albeit with his prison sentence suspended — in 2011.

mk/msh (dpa, AFP)

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