At the Paris judicial court,
The facts date back to nine years ago. Their revelation, seven years. But Nicolas Sarkozy still believes that he has nothing to do in the middle of the Bygmalion affair, whose examination before the 11th chamber of the Paris judicial tribunal is drawing to a close. At the bar for a little over an hour, this Tuesday morning, his lawyer Gesche Le Fur therefore “confidently” demanded his release.
“He didn’t sign any quotes. He didn’t sign any invoice. He accepted all the restrictions that were asked of him. He is far from being a hysterical, insatiable candidate. Above all, he is respectful of the values of justice “, She listed at the end of her presentation to win the conviction of the court.
The prosecution requested one year in prison, including six months suspended
The strategy is not new. From the start, the former head of state has insisted that he has nothing to do with the system of false invoices set up in 2012 between the UMP and the company Bygmalion. At the time, the party had borne a large part of the cost of campaign meetings by passing them off as bogus conventions in order to allow the president-candidate for re-election to remain under the spending limit authorized by law.
Assures him that he never knew anything about the maneuver. What Judge Serge Tournaire recognized during the investigation. In his order, the examining magistrate thus assured that the former President of the Republic had not “ordered” the electoral fric-frac, or even that he had been “informed” of it, but that he had incontestably “of it” benefited ”. An analysis that the prosecution had taken to its account during the requisitions, last Thursday, demanding against him a sentence of one year in prison including six months suspended and 3,750 euros fine.
“Disloyal to say he treated this trial with contempt”
Except that for Gesche Le Fur, nothing today allows us to say “that he had the will to exceed the spending limit” by increasing the number of meetings and calling for “a campaign in solid gold” to use his favorite expression. To explain the implementation of the system, she therefore suggested that the campaign team had “perhaps given in to a certain runaway by anticipating its desires”. In other words, the lieutenants would have been too zealous to satisfy the general without telling him anything.
#Bygmalion : “Nicolas Sarkozy is not the one we tried to describe to you. “
– Vincent Vantighem (@vvantighem) June 22, 2021
As part of her plea, the lawyer – who had to replace her colleague Thierry Herzog, suffering – also wanted to return at length to the absence of her client during the hearing, with the exception of the only day of his interrogation. This has been the subject of strong criticism from the prosecution. “To blame him for that is unfair.” I find it bordering on disloyalty to say that he treated this trial with contempt. It was enough to ask and Nicolas Sarkozy would have come here every day. “
After the final defense pleadings, the decision should be reserved.
Follow this trial live on our journalist’s Twitter account: @vvantighem