PARIS (Reuters) – Former President Nicolas Sarkozy proclaimed his good faith and contested any criminal responsibility on Friday at the bar of the appeal trial in the so-called “Bygmalion” affair, relating to the financing of his 2012 campaign, which earned a year in prison at first instance.
As during the first trial, Nicolas Sarkozy contested any “exaggeration” in his program of electoral meetings in the weeks preceding the presidential election won by the socialist François Hollande, and assured that he had completely delegated the financial aspect with which he is accused.
“What matters to me is the truth,” proclaimed the former head of state, dressed in a dark pinstriped suit. “I haven’t managed to convince so far,” he regretted.
Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of illegal campaign financing in September 2021, and sentenced to one year in prison, higher than the prosecution’s requirements, with the possibility of serving it at home, under electronic surveillance.
In its judgment, the criminal court accused him of having continued his costly electoral meetings despite having been “warned in writing” of the risk of exceeding the authorized expenses which amounted to 42.8 million euros, almost double of the legal ceiling at the time.
By appealing, Nicolas Sarkozy said he wanted to challenge this judgment both in principle and in substance.
“I contest the extraordinary side of my meetings or my meetings. (…) I formally contest the term ‘excitement’ which corresponds to nothing,” he said on Friday at the bar.
“Have we seen a presidential candidate, a month before (the election), a candidate who goes a day without holding a meeting? That doesn’t exist. (…) My campaign was the same as that other candidates,” he argued.
The former head of state, aged 68, rejected any criminal responsibility in this affair, maintaining that he had at no time been aware of the campaign accounts being exceeded, and therefore of fraud. criminally reprehensible.
“I vigorously contest any criminal liability. I deny ever having been aware of fraud,” he insisted at the bar.
Nicolas Sarkozy told the court that he did not want to avoid the responsibilities incumbent on him, ensuring that he had assumed them “the day after the election”, as well as his “political responsibility” by recognizing his defeat and reimbursing 10.5 million euros in campaign costs, that his “administrative responsibility” by himself paying the fine of 363,000 euros which had been imposed on him by the constitutional council.
“My 2012 campaign cost the taxpayer nothing,” he insisted, ensuring that he had not “left my party with a gaping hole.”
Head of State from 2007 to 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy is involved in several legal proceedings.
Sentenced on appeal last May to three years in prison, including one year, in the so-called “Bismuth” wiretapping affair, he filed an appeal on points of law.
He will be tried in early 2025 in the case of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign which brought him to power.
(Reporting by Juliette Jabkhiro, written by Tangi Salaün, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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