Imprisonment for ex-President Sarkozy: warning shot by the Paris criminal court

France’s ex-president Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal campaign funding – without parole. He doesn’t have to go to jail, but he is under house arrest.

The man who ruled France from 2007 to 2012 and who still has great political influence in the conservative camp today has to be imprisoned for one year without parole. The Paris criminal court even went beyond the request of the public prosecutor, who wanted to suspend half of the sentence. Nicolas Sarkozy is unlikely to be comforted by the fact that he can serve the sentence under house arrest, monitored by an electronic ankle cuff. The French media speak of an additional humiliation.

The now 66-year-old was found guilty of unauthorized campaign funding, in a particularly serious form, according to the presiding judge. In the ultimately unsuccessful campaign for his re-election in 2012, his campaign team spent more than 40 million euros, only half of which was allowed. The then president, according to the judge, knew of the excess and still held numerous other rallies.

Lawyer wants to appeal

Sarkozy, who did not appear in person to deliver the verdict, had denied the allegations during the trial. He did not take care of the day-to-day organization and could therefore not be held responsible for the amount of expenses. His lawyer Thierry Herzog immediately announced that he would appeal the verdict: “That is why President Sarkozy, with whom I spoke on the phone immediately after the verdict was announced, asked me to appeal. And I will do so immediately. Until the final decision is made Of course, the punishment was not implemented either. ”

Cover-up with fictitious bills

The illegal overspending was covered up by a system of fictitious invoices. The agency Bygmalion, which organized Sarkozy’s campaign appearances, helped. The ex-president could not be proven that he knew about this system, so he was not charged with fraud and forgery. But those in charge of Sarkozy’s UMP party and managers of Bygmalion, a total of 13. The court sentenced them to prison terms of between two and three and a half years.

Jerome Lavrilleux, the deputy chief of the Sarkozy campaign team, was one of the few who had admitted their guilt. “I’ve made mistakes and I’ll pay for them,” says Lavrilleux. “I’ve been judged for the things I’ve confessed.”

Solidarity messages from party friends

The guilty verdict has sparked shock waves among Sarkozy’s conservative party friends. Almost all leaders immediately tweeted messages of solidarity. Renaud Muselier, party leader in the Alpes-Cote d´Azur region, did the same on television: “I will always support him. He is a great president and a personal friend.”

Not Sarkozy’s only problem with the judiciary

The Bygmalion affair is not Sarkozy’s only legal problem. In March he was sentenced to a year imprisonment – six months of which on probation – for bribery and illicit interference in the judiciary. It is also investigating the financing of his election campaign in 2007. The then ruler of Libya, Muammar al Gaddafi, is said to have helped him with 50 million euros.

Sarko – as he is often called in France – has therefore repeatedly dealt against the judiciary, which is persecuting him for political reasons. Evelyne Sire-Marin, former chairwoman of the judges’ union, rejects this. “40 years ago something like this would have been inconceivable,” she says. “But then came a whole series of courageous judges who pursued financial offenses just as consistently as other offenses and applied the same yardstick to punishment.”

And she hopes that after this warning shot, the politicians will now pay more attention to proper election campaign spending.