Nicolas Sarkozy’s political retirement is like a long judicial way of the cross. The former president will be back at the bar on Monday, tried on appeal in the so-called “wiretapping” case, which earned him at first instance on March 1, 2021 a three-year prison sentence, one of which is firm. The same sentence had been pronounced against his two co-defendants, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert.
This case is itself the result of another investigation, when Nicolas Sarkozy’s two telephones were tapped by the judges responsible for clarifying suspicions of Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign, which today earned him a quadruple indictment. The investigators then discovered the existence of a third line put into service on January 11, 2014 under the alias “Paul Bismuth”, named after a high school acquaintance of Thierry Herzog, and dedicated to exchanges between the former president and his lawyer and close friend.
“He worked, huh? »
Over the course of conversations that they think are safe from indiscreet ears, according to the prosecution, a corruption pact is formed with Gilbert Azibert, general counsel at the Court of Cassation. On the one hand, Nicolas Sarkozy seeks information covered by secrecy, even influence, on an appeal in cassation that he had formed in the Bettencourt affair. In exchange: the promise of support for a position in Monaco for Gilbert Azibert.
At the time, Nicolas Sarkozy wanted to have the High Court cancel the seizure of his presidential diaries as part of the investigation for abuse of weakness on the heiress of L’Oréal Liliane Bettencourt. And Gilbert Azibert, suspected of having had knowledge, upstream, of confidential information, would have tried to influence advisers participating in the deliberations.
“He worked, huh? “, welcomes Me Herzog on the line “Bismuth” where he informs Nicolas Sarkozy of the wish of the magistrate to obtain “perhaps a boost” for a position in Monaco. According to the interceptions, Nicolas Sarkozy then promises his lawyer to activate his networks on Le Rocher to “bring up” Gilbert Azibert. “I will take care of it because I am going to Monaco and I will see the Prince,” he assures us. Finally, Azibert will not get the coveted post and the Court of Cassation will reject the appeal of Nicolas Sarkozy in the business of the diaries. Whether he intervened with the Monegasque authorities remains debated.
Shadow areas
According to the defense, this is proof that the corrupt pact is only a “fantasy”. On the contrary, at first instance, the criminal court considered that corruption was characterized when a reward was offered and accepted in exchange for consideration, whether or not the goal was achieved. Nicolas Sarkozy “used his status as former president (…) to gratify a magistrate who served his personal interest”, ruled the court. He then became the second president of the Fifth Republic sentenced by justice, after Jacques Chirac in 2011.
After his conviction, the ex-president said he was the victim of a “deep injustice”, denouncing “infamy”. The debates before the Court of Appeal, scheduled until December 16, promise to be less stormy but at least one gray area will remain. At the end of February 2014, a sudden change in tone in the exchanges between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer had convinced the investigators that they knew they were being wiretapped. But the PNF’s investigation did not identify a possible “mole” who would have informed them.