The World Briefly

May 18, 2023

The Golden Handcuffs

France

Listen to Today's Edition

A French appeals court upheld a prison sentence against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday on charges of corruption and influence-peddling, the Guardian reported.

The ruling confirmed a 2021 verdict from a lower court that sentenced Sarkozy to three years in prison, with two years suspended and one year that could be served at home with an electronic bracelet.

The higher court also upheld a decision to ban Sarkozy from public office for three years.

The case centers around allegations that Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog had formed a “corruption pact” with a judge to gather and share information about a legal investigation into his campaign financing: Authorities had wiretapped the former president’s phone lines while investigating allegations of Libyan financing in Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign, according to Politico.

The influential politician, who served between 2007 and 2012, has denied the allegations. He plans to appeal the new verdict to France’s highest court.

But the case is only one of the many legal probes against Sarkozy since he left office.

He will face a retrial in November over his involvement in the Bygmalion case for which he initially received a one-year prison sentence. Prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy’s team exceeded the legal campaign expenditure limit during his 2012 re-election campaign by using false billing from the public relations firm Bygmalion.

Sarkozy maintains his innocence.

Meanwhile, French authorities called last week for Sarkozy to stand trial over new accusations involving illegal Libyan financing for his 2007 campaign.

Prosecutors say that Sarkozy and 12 others allegedly sought millions of euros from the regime of Libya’s late autocrat Muammar Gaddafi for the French leader’s presidential bid.

This story originally appeared in the May 18, 2023 newsletter, East of Eden.