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The Paris Court of Appeal sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to one year in prison, including a six-month suspended sentence, on charges of exceeding the spending ceiling during his campaign for the presidential elections in 2012.
His lawyer, Vincent Déré, told reporters, “Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy is completely innocent. He was informed of this decision and decided to appeal it before the Court of Cassation.”
While reading the ruling, the president of the court explained that the prison term would be modified from the sentence imposed on the former president (2007-2012) in the “Pygmalion” case, which is the name of the company that organized his election campaign meetings.
The former president was convicted in September 2021 of one year in prison, and the Criminal Court requested that the sentence be implemented directly at home under electronic monitoring. Sarkozy appealed the ruling and was actually retried between November 8 and December 7.
The former president, as he did during the first trial, “vehemently denied any criminal responsibility,” considering that what was said about him were mere “lies.”
Sarkozy’s lawyer had demanded his acquittal, stressing that the former president “did not know that there was an exceedance” in the legal ceiling for electoral expenses.
Nicolas Sarkozy is awaiting other cases. He was sentenced to three years in prison, one of which is effective, in connection with a wiretapping case last May, a decision he appealed before the Court of Cassation.
In 2025, Sarkozy will appear before the judiciary on suspicion of obtaining financing from Libya for his 2007 presidential campaign.
2024-02-15 19:23:06