An unprecedented sanction against a former French president was upheld on appeal: Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced in Paris on Wednesday to three years in prison, including one year with execution under an electronic bracelet, for corruption and influence-peddling.
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The former French right-wing strongman listened to the decision through clenched jaws on the defendants’ bench. He left the courtroom without making a statement.
His lawyer Jacqueline Laffont criticized a “staggering”, “unfair and unjust” decision and immediately announced that she would “file an appeal in cassation, an appeal that stays all the measures imposed today (…)”.
Nicolas Sarkozy, 68, is the first former French president to be sentenced to prison. His former mentor Jacques Chirac was sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence in a fictional job case in the city of Paris in 2011.
His historic attorney Thierry Herzog, 67, and former Chief Justice Gilbert Azibert, 76, were also found guilty of making a “corruption pact” with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2014 and sentenced to the same sentence.
The Court of Appeal also imposed a three-year civil rights ban on Mr Sarkozy, barring him from admission, and on Mr Azibert, and a three-year ban on Mr Herzog.
According to their lawyer, Herzog and Mr. Azibert will also appeal to the Court of Cassation.
The Court of Appeal went beyond the demands of the Attorney General’s Office, which on December 13 had called for three years’ imprisonment on full probation against the three defendants, who had always denied any corruption, thus upholding the sentences handed down on March 1, 2021.
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The former tenant of the Élysée (2007-2012) had denied these allegations in the appeal process “with the greatest severity” and affirmed that he had “never corrupted anyone”.
On the contrary, Mr Sarkozy “used his status as former President (…) to serve his personal interests”, the Court of Appeal considered a “deviation” which “requires a strong criminal justice response”.
Gilbert Azibert’s behavior “discredited” the profession of judge, said Court President Sophie Clément. Me Herzog “betrayed his legal oath”.
This case arose from wiretapped telephone conversations between Mr Sarkozy and Mr Herzog, his lawyer and longtime friend.
In late 2013, the investigative magistrates investigating allegations of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign decided to “connect” Nicolas Sarkozy’s two lines. Then they discover the existence of a third, unofficial line.
Purchased in January 2014 under the identity of “Paul Bismuth” – a high school acquaintance of Me Herzog – it is dedicated solely to the exchange between the two men.
For prosecutors, these wiretaps reveal a corruption pact with Mr. Azibert, then Attorney General at the Court of Cassation, the highest court of the French judiciary.
In these recordings, broadcast for the first time on appeal, Nicolas Sarkozy, then awaiting a cassation decision in the Bettencourt affair, pledged to “call up” the judge or take a “step” in his favour. The ex-president was in fact accused for a time of “abusing weakness” in relation to L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt: in 2013 he finally benefited from being fired “for lack of sufficient charges”.
For the court, Mr Azibert sought to influence Mr Sarkozy’s appeal in exchange for a “promotion” to volunteer in Monaco. “Certainly, the measures taken did not have the expected success,” but “this case is still of a certain severity,” she assessed.
Under intense judicial pressure, Nicolas Sarkozy is again accused of illegally financing his 2012 presidential election campaign. In September 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison.
He is also threatened with a third trial with great severity: On Thursday, the public prosecutor’s office for finance applied for his transfer to the execution of the sentence on suspicion of Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. The decision rests with the investigating judges.