David Montagné with AFP // Photo credit: Bertrand Guay / AFP
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7:10 p.m., May 17, 2023
Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal to three years in prison, including one year for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping affair, an unprecedented sanction for a former president. The ex-president will lodge an appeal in cassation.
This is a first for a former President of the Republic. Former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal in Paris to three years in prison on Wednesday, including one year for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping affair, an unprecedented sanction for a former president. The president clarified when reading the decision that this sentence could be executed under an electronic bracelet at her home. His lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, spoke briefly at the end of the hearing.
“This decision seems amazing to me. It is open to criticism, questionable in law, in fact. Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent of the facts of which he is accused and we will not give up this fight, which is a fair fight in the face of a particularly iniquitous decision and unfair,” she said. The president, she spoke with particularly strong words undermining justice, the rule of law, public trust, occult arrangements. And to recall that Nicolas Sarkozy, as former President of the Republic, was the guarantor of the Constitution, that he took advantage of his status to serve his personal interest.
Appeal in cassation
The historical lawyer of Nicolas Sarkozy, Thierry Herzog as well as the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert were sentenced to the same sentences. The Court of Appeal also pronounced a three-year ban on civil rights for Nicolas Sarkozy, which makes him ineligible, as well as a three-year ban on practicing for Me Herzog.
All three have indicated that they are filing an appeal in cassation. An appeal which suspends all of these convictions. The former head of state emerged from the courtroom without making a statement. “I welcome this decision of the Court of Appeal with great sadness, I think of Nicolas Sarkozy, of what he represents for France. I measure the evidence for him and tell him my friendly thoughts in these difficult times. “, reacted Eric Ciotti at the microphone of Europe 1, shortly after the decision.