New judicial round for Nicolas Sarkozy

On March 1, 2021, just a few hours after being sentenced to three years in prison, including one firm, in the so-called “Paul Bismuth” case, the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy was quick to confirm this that everyone predicted: of course he intended to appeal. “What happened yesterday is a profound injustice that no one could accept. Indeed, I cannot accept having been condemned for what I did not do”, he specified the following day to the Figaro. More than a year and a half after being found guilty by the Paris Criminal Court of “active corruption” and “influence peddling”, the former head of state is therefore preparing to make his comeback in the judicial arena.

At the heart of the case: telephone tapping between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer and close friend Thierry Herzog, suggesting that they would have promised a senior magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, a post in Monaco in exchange for information in the Bettencourt case , in which the former president was implicated. Throughout the first instance trial, the three men – all sentenced to the same sentence – argued that not only did Nicolas Sarkozy not win the case he was seeking information about, but that in addition Gilbert Azibert had never obtained a post in the principality. The defense also pointed out that no attempt to influence had been noted, either with the Court of Cassation or the Monegasque courts.

“Occult Arrangements”

Still, according to the law, it is not necessary that the consideration has been obtained, nor that the influence be real, to characterize the offenses of corruption and influence peddling. The judgment, of more than 250 pages, castigated “occult arrangements intended to satisfy private interests”. “The acts of which Nicolas Sarkozy is guilty are of particular gravity, having been committed by a former President of the Republic who was the guarantor of the independence of justice”, added the magistrates to support their decision.

Nicolas Sarkozy is thus the first president of the Fifth Republic to receive a prison sentence. A few months later, in another file called “Bygmalion” concerning the illegal financing of his 2017 campaign, he was sentenced to one year in prison, a sentence which he also appealed (the trial is scheduled for December 2023) . Before him, only Jacques Chirac had been sanctioned by the courts, sentenced in 2011 to two years in prison suspended in the file of fictitious jobs in the city of Paris. The fact remains that even in the event of a new conviction, the risks that he carries out a prison sentence are relatively low because in one case as in the other, the sentences are flexible.

Above all, in the wiretapping file, the former President of the Republic has already made it known that if he were convicted, he would go, if necessary, to the European Court of Human Rights. “It would be painful for me to have my country condemned, but I am ready for it because it would be the price of democracy”, he declared after his conviction, still at the Figaro. The former strongman of the right questions the impartiality of the judges, with whom relations have been stormy throughout his mandate.

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