2023-10-07 00:26:33
The double inclusion of Nicolas Sarkozy’s examination in the case of Takieddine’s retraction adds to an already busy schedule for the former President of the Republic. Beyond the investigation into potential fraudulent maneuvers to exonerate him from suspicions of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, the former head of state is cited in various files, from the “wiretapping” affair to Bygmalion , including the awarding of the World Cup to Qatar.
The “tapping” case in cassation
Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal on May 17 to three years in prison, including one year to be served under an electronic bracelet, for corruption and influence peddling in the so-called wiretapping affair (or Bismuth affair). A confirmation of the sentences handed down at first instance in 2021.
He was found guilty of having attempted, with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, to obtain from the high magistrate Gilbert Azibert information covered by secrecy, or even influence, on a cassation appeal that he had filed in the Bettencourt affair . In exchange: the promise of support for a position in Monaco.
The former leader of the UMP has appealed to the Court of Cassation, and a recent decision by the Constitutional Council could open the door to a new trial.
Bygmalion on appeal
Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced, on September 30, 2021, to one year in prison in the Bygmalion case for the illegal financing of his lost 2012 presidential campaign.
Unlike his 13 co-defendants (former executives of the campaign and the UMP as well as the Bygmalion company), the ex-president was not accused of the system of false invoices imagined to hide the explosion in spending authorized campaign expenses, but for having exceeded the legal threshold for this expenditure of more than 20 million euros. He appealed. His trial will begin on November 8, 2023.
First trial on Libyan financing
Nicolas Sarkozy will also be tried in 2025, notably for corruption, suspected with his entourage of having entered into a pact with the regime of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his victorious presidential campaign of 2007, which he denies outright.
He will share the dock with twelve other people, including three of his former ministers: Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, former ministers of the Interior and close to Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as Éric Woerth, former treasurer of the presidential campaign suspicious.
Other ongoing investigations
Its lucrative consulting activities in Russia are also the subject of a preliminary investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) into possible “influence peddling”. According to Mediapart, which revealed the information, this investigation was opened in the summer of 2020. It aims to determine whether Nicolas Sarkozy “would have engaged in potentially criminal lobbying activities” on behalf of Russian oligarchs.
Justice has also been investigating since 2019 for “active and passive corruption” over a lunch held in 2010 between Nicolas Sarkozy, then president, two senior Qatari leaders and Michel Platini, at the time boss of UEFA. Objective: to determine whether Michel Platini’s vote in favor of Qatar for the 2022 World Cup was obtained in exchange for compensation.
Excluded
The ex-president benefited from a dismissal of several cases: that on private jet trips, which had given rise to suspicions of abuse of corporate assets because they were paid for by the company of one of his relatives, or in the investigation into the settlement by the UMP of penalties due to financial irregularities in its 2012 campaign.
Justice also abandoned its prosecution in the case of donations granted to the UMP by the wealthy heiress of the L’Oréal group Liliane Bettencourt (died in 2017), where he was briefly indicted for abuse of weakness.
Presidential immunity
Furthermore, four former members of Nicolas Sarkozy’s inner circle were convicted in January in the so-called Élysée polls affair, billed without a call for tenders between 2007 and 2012. The former secretary general of the presidency and former minister Claude Guéant, sentenced to one year of imprisonment including eight months, appealed. The former head of state, covered by presidential immunity, which prevails for acts carried out in this capacity, has never been implicated in this case.
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