Corruption and influence peddling: Sarkozy sentenced on appeal to 3 years in prison, one of which is firm

The former head of state (2007-2012) had been sentenced to the same sentence at first instance, an unprecedented sanction for a former president of the republic in France. Sarkozy (68), who was present at the hearing, is also deprived of his civic rights for a period of three years, which makes him ineligible.

The two co-defendants of the ex-president, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert, were found guilty of having entered into a « corruption pact » with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2014 and received the same sentence. Herzog was also banned from practicing his profession for three years.

“We are still at the beginning of the path and this path will continue. We will lodge an appeal in cassation against this decision. Appeal which is suspensive of all the measures which have been pronounced today” , declared the lawyer of the former head of state, Me Jacqueline Laffont.

Nicolas Sarkozy is  » innocent of all the charges against him. He intends to pursue this path. We will pursue it with strength and determination. We will continue before the Court of Cassation and we will go to the end of the legal path if he must, » she said, calling the appeals court’s decision « staggering, questionable and questionable in law and in fact. » « We will not let go of this just fight in the face of a particularly iniquitous and unjust decision , » added the lawyer.

On December 13, the public prosecutor’s office demanded a three-year suspended prison sentence for the three defendants, who have always denied any corruption. Sarkozy contested « with the greatest force  » during the appeal trial these accusations, reaffirming at the bar that he had « never corrupted anyone ».

The president of the court of appeal notably justified the decision rendered by the status of the three defendants, all three legal professionals.

The case of suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign is indirectly at the origin of the case of  » wiretapping », also called « Bismuth », according to the French media. At the end of 2013, the investigating judges in charge of the investigation into suspicions of Libyan corruption decided to « connect » the two lines of Nicolas Sarkozy. 

They then discover the existence of a third, unofficial line. Purchased on January 11, 2014 under the identity of « Paul Bismuth », it is dedicated to exchanges between the former president and his lawyer and longtime friend, Thierry Herzog.

For the public prosecutor, these wiretappings take shape in a corruption pact forged with Gilbert Azibert, then general counsel at the Court of Cassation, accused of having worked behind the scenes to weigh in on an appeal brought by Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bettencourt affair, in exchange for a « boost  » for an honorary position in Monaco.