A court has confirmed the sentence to three years in prison for former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for a crime of corruption committed in 2014, the same sentence to which he was sentenced in March 2021 in the first instance.
Sarkozy, the first former head of state sentenced to an effective prison sentencewill not go to prisonbecause the court specified in his sentence that he can serve the sentence under house arrest and with an electronic bracelet.
The former president was sentenced in the first instance in March 2021 to three years in prison, two of them exempt from compliance, for a crime committed in 2014, two years after leaving power, when, according to the sentence, used his influence for gain in another cause.
The former president will not enter prison, because the court specified in his sentence that he can serve the sentence under house arrest and with an electronic bracelet.
Judicial sources point out that Sarkozy, retired from the political front line since 2016 but very influential between the french conservativeshe will appeal the sentence to the Supreme Court, so he still will not have to serve that sentence.
wiretapping
Two years after leaving the ElysiumSarkozy tried to obtain judicial benefits from a high magistrate, a circumstance that came to light through wiretapping to which he was subjected in another investigation.
The court also sentenced the other two defendants, the Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to three years in prison, two exempt from compliance, in addition to a three-year ban on practicing his profession; and to Judge Gilbert Azibert to the same penalty with three years of deprivation of their civic rights. None of them will have to go to jail.
The sentence is particularly harsh with sarkzoy, because, as explained by the president of the court, “he benefited from his status as former president (…) to obtain a personal benefit.” The case, she continued, “attempts against the trust that citizens can legitimately expect from justice.”
three court cases
Although Sarkozy He has always denied his guilt, and the only way left is the Supreme Court to prove it. He has five days to file that appeal.
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It is a new legal setback for the man who presided over France between 2007 and 2012, also sentenced to a sentence of one year in prison in September 2021 for irregular financing of the electoral campaign for the 2012 presidential elections.
The president also appealed that second sentence, which will be tried on appeal next November. Sarkozy He faces a third legal front, since the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office requested last week that he appear for the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from the Libyan regime of Muammar Gadhafi.