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The Supreme Court finally confirmed Tuesday, October 1 the referral to the criminal court of Nicolas Sarkozy for excessive spending of his 2012 presidential campaign revealed by the Bygmalion case.
The highest court rejected the last appeal of the former head of state to escape a trial for "illegal financing of election campaign", a crime punishable by one year in prison and 3,750 euros. fine, ordered in February 2017 by the examining magistrate Serge Tournaire.
Thirteen other protagonists will be judged in this case. In addition to the appeal of Mr Sarkozy, the Court of Cassation dismissed the appeals of seven other defendants against the judgment of the investigating chamber of October 25, 2018 which had confirmed their removal in correctional.
In concrete terms, Nicolas Sarkozy is being prosecuted for having exceeded the threshold of election expenses of more than 20 million euros, despite the warnings of the accountants of the campaign in March and April 2012.
To challenge his dismissal, Nicolas Sarkozy had brandished the principle of "non bis in idem", according to which a person can not be sanctioned twice for the same facts. He considers that he has already been definitively sanctioned by the Constitutional Council in 2013, when the body confirmed the rejection of his accounts for this overrun, which he had had to repay.
However, this sanction involved a slippage of 363,615 euros, found before the revelation in spring 2014 of a large system of false invoices to disguise the runaway expenses of its meetings, organized by the Bygmalion agency.
The defense of the former president raised a priority issue of constitutionality, but it was rejected on May 17. The "Sages" considered that the financial sanction and penal sanction were of a different nature and protected distinct "social interests".
In its judgment of Tuesday, the Court of Cassation considers that it does not fall to him, at this stage, to pronounce on the grievances of Nicolas Sarkozy and that it is the court correctional to examine them.
" This is a disappointment because the proposed criticism was likely to be welcomed, but in reality the Court of Cassation did not respond and leave it to the court to do so, " reacted to AFP Me Emmanuel Piwnica, lawyer of Mr. Sarkozy.
" Once again, President Sarkozy is not concerned by the facts concerning Bygmalion, but only on exceeding the spending ceiling ," he said.
(With AFP)