One year imprisonment for France's ex-president Sarkozy

[New Reporter]

One year imprisonment for France's ex-president Sarkozy

A Paris court found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of illegally funding his 2012 election campaign. He was sentenced to one year without parole and is forced to wear an electronic ankle cuff.

30.09.2021

https://i.imgur.com/RNAl17E.jpg
France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy

France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy was guilty of illegal campaign funding in 2012. A court in Paris has now sentenced him for this. Sarkozy stayed away from the sentencing and was sentenced to one year in prison without parole. The court ruled that the sentence would be in the form of electronically monitored house arrest.

Sarkozy's campaign for his re-election had failed at the time. As a candidate, Sarkozy failed to control costs, said presiding judge Caroline Viguier in Paris. The prosecution had asked for a one-year sentence with a six-month suspended sentence .

The judgment is not final. Sarkozy's attorney Thierry Herzog announced that they would appeal. The defense had called for Sarkozy to be acquitted.

Sarkozy's team is said to have spent 42.8 million euros

In France , spending on an election campaign is capped in order to create more equality of opportunity between candidates. The upper limit allowed at that time was 22.5 million euros. In fact, Sarkozy's team spent at least 42.8 million, according to prosecutors.

In order to cover up the overspending, expenses are said to have by a system of fictitious invoices from his party UMP been camouflaged - now renamed Republicans. According to the media, Sarkozy is not accused of having created the system of fictitious invoices. He is said to have ignored two warnings from accountants. In the process, Sarkozy had denied the allegations.

Still further investigations against the ex-president

In addition to Sarkozy, 13 people were on trial on suspicion of fraud and aiding and abetting. Jérôme Lavrilleux, who was once Vice-President of the Election Campaign, is one of them. Sarkozy had personally denied the allegations in court, stating that the election campaign had not been overrun financially. The Conservative lost to his socialist challenger 2012 François Hollande in .

The French judiciary is also investigating Sarkozy for alleged payments by Libya for his 2007 election campaign. In another affair, Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison in March, two of which were suspended, for bribery and illicit influence. He has announced that he will appeal.

[New Reporter]

Bygmalion trial: Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to one year in prison

The former president was found guilty of “illegal financing” of his 2012 presidential campaign. The sentence will be accommodated in house arrest under electronic surveillance

It is again the hour of judgment for Nicolas Sarkozy. The former President of the Republic was however absent, Thursday, September 30, when the Paris Criminal Court sentenced him to the maximum sentence of one year in prison for the illegal financing of his campaign for the 2012 presidential election, in the Bygmalion case. "President Sarkozy, with whom I just spoke on the phone, asked me to appeal, which I will do immediately," said his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, leaving the courtroom.

The sentence is higher than the requisitions of the prosecution, which had requested a sentence of one year in prison, including six months suspended. It will nevertheless be suitable for home detention under electronic surveillance. But the former President of the Republic will not wear an electronic bracelet Thursday evening, since the court did not ask, as it could have done, the immediate execution of the sentence pronounced and its adjustment.

This is the second conviction for Nicolas Sarkozy: he was sentenced on 1 st March to three years in prison (one farm year) for corruption and influence peddling in the case known as "Listens" . He appealed against this conviction.

He "continued the organization of meetings" , having been "notified in writing of the possibility of exceeding" the legal ceiling, reminded the president of 11 th Criminal Chamber Carolina Viguier. "It was not his first campaign, he had experience as a candidate," continued the magistrate.

The "casualness" of the former president

Nicolas Sarkozy was only tried for "illegal campaign financing" - for which he faced a year of imprisonment and a fine of 3,750 euros - but he "undoubtedly" benefited from the fraud, having means much greater than those authorized by law: at least 42.8 million in total, nearly double the legal ceiling at the time.

Unlike his co-defendants, present every day, Nicolas Sarkozy only came to the hearing for his questioning. A way of placing oneself "above the fray" which has ulcerated the floor. The "total casualness" of the one who "visibly regrets nothing" is "like the casualness in his campaign," had launched the prosecutor Vanessa Perrée.

Nicolas Sarkozy had denied everything altogether. " A fable ! He had carried away at the bar. His defense had pleaded for release. “He did not sign any estimate, he did not sign any invoice, he accepted all the restrictions that were asked of him. He is far from being a hysterical, insatiable candidate ” , had put forward his lawyer M e Gesche Le Fur.

From two to three and a half years in prison for co-convicts

Thirteen other defendants - former executives of the communication agency Bygmalion and the UMP, accountants - were prosecuted for "forgery", "use of forgery", "breach of trust" or "fraud", offenses punishable by three to five years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros.

Guillaume Lambert, who was Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign director in 2012, was sentenced for fraud and complicity in the illegal financing of the electoral campaign to three years and six months in prison, including two years suspended. For the same charges, Philippe Briand, ex-president of the campaign financing association, was sentenced to two years in prison, one of which was suspended.

The two men participated in all the weekly meetings which made it possible to set up from March 2012 the fraudulent process and to validate it collectively, estimated the president of the court.

Jérôme Lavrilleux, former deputy director of the 2012 presidential campaign, was convicted of breach of trust, complicity in fraud and illegal financing of the electoral campaign and sentenced to three years in prison, one of which was suspended. , accompanied by a three-year ineligibility sentence.

For his part, Franck Attal, head of the Event & Cie company in charge of organizing meetings, was sentenced to two years in prison, including one year suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros for complicity in forgery, forgery, fraud and illegal campaign financing.