Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy lost his appeal on Wednesday, against a 2021 conviction for corruption and influence peddling.
In an unprecedented ruling for a former French head of state, the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the three-year prison sentence. However, it ruled that two of those years were suspended, for the rest of the year he could wear an electronic bracelet instead of going to prison.
His lawyer Jacqueline Laffont announced that the 68-year-old ex-president will appeal the highest court, the Court of Cassation, maintaining his innocence.
Longtime lawyer Thierry Herzog and former top judge Gilbert Azibert were found to have made a "corruption pact" with Sarkozy and were handed the same sentences. The appeal court also imposed a three-year suspension of civic rights for Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as a three-year ban on the practice of law for Thierry Herzog.
L'Oreal, was it worth it?
In 2021, the former rightwing president was found guilty of corruption after revelations emerged that he was using a secret telephone line, under the name of "Paul Bismuth", through which he communicated with his lawyer.
Sarkozy was accused of having tried to obtain secret information from Azibert through Herzog in 2013, for another legal case. Here, he was accused of soliciting secret campaign financing from the L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
At the time, Azibert was the former attorney general at the highest court in the French judicial system. He was offered an "honorary position" in Monaco in exchange for his influence over Sarkozy's other case.
Nicolas Sarkozy challenged these charges "in the strongest possible terms" during the appeal trial, reaffirming in court that he had "never corrupted anyone".
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In the fall of this year, the former French president will retried for another corruption charge in relation to the Bygmalion scandal. In this case case, Sarkozy's hid €20.2 million of excess illegal financing during the 2012 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy is also under threat of another trial, AFP reports. On Thursday, the National Financial Prosecutor's office requested his referral to the correctional court in the case of suspicions of Libyan financing of his presidential campaign in 2007.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as French president from 2007 to 2012, is not the first leader to be convicted. His former mentor and predecessor, Jacques Chirac was handed a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for diverting public funds and abusing public trust.
