2023-12-01 17:47:38
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy leaving the court where the appeal trial of the Bygmalion affair is being held, November 24, 2023. SARAH MEYSSONNIER / REUTERS
Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer pleaded Friday, December 1 for his release from the appeal trial on the excessive spending of his presidential campaign lost in 2012, reaffirming that the former head of state had not “no knowledge” budgetary slippages.
While the public prosecutor requested the day before a year of suspended imprisonment against the former president, who had been sentenced in first instance to one year of imprisonment, his lawyer Vincent Desry opened the ball of the pleadings which must be ‘finish next Thursday. The decision of the court of appeal will then be reserved.
“Mr Sarkozy was never aware of an excess” of the legal ceiling for electoral expenses, it “never incurred any expenses”affirmed his counsel by opening two hours of sober pleading, contrasting with the more animated defense of his client during his interrogation on Friday November 24.
Mr. Desry considered that the judgment of the criminal court in September 2021 was “wrong” et “ill-founded in law and in fact”.
Sentence required less severe than at first instance
In this file called Bygmalion, named after the company which organized the campaign meetings of the right-wing candidate, ten people, including Nicolas Sarkozy, have been retried since November 8 by the Paris Court of Appeal. Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state is not accused of the system of false invoices designed to hide the explosion in his campaign’s expenses which reached nearly 43 million euros at the time. that the legal ceiling was 22.5 million euros.
But, in its judgment, the court emphasized that the former tenant of the Elysée had “continued organizing meetings” electoral, “requesting one meeting per day”even though he “had been warned in writing” the risk of legal overrun, then the actual overrun. “There was nothing fatal about this spending slope”estimated Thursday in his requisitions the Advocate General Bruno Revel, for whom it resulted “of the choice imposed by the candidate”.
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With his colleague Serge Roques, however, he asked for a less severe sentence for Nicolas Sarkozy than that to which he has already been sentenced, one year of suspended imprisonment, explaining that the accused did not see himself “not blame for being at the origin of the system put in place” to hide slippages or“to have been informed”.
No “intentional” or “material” element
“I was only able to see a receding accusation”observed Mr. Desry on Friday, judging that he had been « impossible » to the public prosecutor’s office “demonstrate the intentional element” et “the material element” of the alleged offense. According to him, if Nicolas Sarkozy “was not informed of the fraud, he could not have been informed of the excess”.
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During his interrogation, the ex-president “explained that every campaign will crescendo”recalled the lawyer, contesting the idea of a “runaway” from that of 2012. The argument put forward by « faste des meetings »which should have alerted the candidate about his expenses, is a « construction a posteriori »brushed off Mr. Desry, arguing that at the time the press was reporting events at “your most sober” than five years earlier, during the 2007 campaign.
The lawyer also returned to the warning notes written by accountants during the campaign. When his client was informed of the first, at the beginning of March 2012, which mentioned a risk of exceeding the ceiling, “he is simultaneously informed of the implementation of fixes”said Mr. Desry. “Savings measures have been taken, varied and numerous”pour “at least 3 million euros”.
A second note, written after the first round, indicates that “the ceiling is not reached”, he continued. Finally, a third, presenting the campaign account, dated June 28 and signed by Nicolas Sarkozy, indicates that it “is in balance” et “does not report any risk of rejection”.
“My client has often been described as an omnipresidentremarked the lawyer, This does not make him omniscient. »
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