Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy had his three-year prison sentence for corruption and influence peddling confirmed by a French appeals court on Wednesday.
The court upheld the one-year home detention with an electronic bracelet and a three-year ban on public service for Sarkozy, who had tried to obtain favors from a judge in a wiretapping case.
After the ruling, the 68-year-old left the courtroom without making any comments, but his lawyer indicated that they will appeal the decision to France’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has faced legal issues since leaving office.
In March 2021, he was sentenced to prison, becoming France’s first postwar president to receive such a conviction. The court concluded that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had entered into a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to exchange information about a judicial inquiry.
During the investigation, Sarkozy’s official phone lines were wiretapped, and a third unauthorized phone line registered under the name “Paul Bismuth” was discovered. It was through this line that Sarkozy communicated with Herzog, and the contents of these conversations played a significant role in the corruption verdict.
Sarkozy immediately denied the allegations and filed an appeal.
During the appeals hearing in December, Sarkozy maintained his innocence, stating that he had “never corrupted anybody.” The recordings of his discussions with Herzog were played in court and are expected to play a crucial role in the court’s judgment.
The case known as the “Bismuth case” is just one of several investigations involving the former president, who was often referred to as the “hyper-president” during his time in office.
Sarkozy will face a retrial in the Bygmalion case, where he was initially sentenced to one year in jail. The retrial is set to begin in November 2023. In this case, Sarkozy’s team was accused of surpassing the legal spending limit for his 2012 re-election campaign by using fake billing from a public relations agency named Bygmalion. Sarkozy denies any wrongdoing in this matter.
Additionally, French prosecutors have ordered Sarkozy to stand trial again for alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. Prosecutors claim that Sarkozy and 12 others solicited millions of euros in funds from the regime of then-Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for the campaign. Sarkozy is facing charges of corruption, illicit campaign finance, and concealing misappropriation of public funds, all of which he denies.
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