Paris (AFP)
The so-called "eavesdropping" trial ended Thursday evening, at the end of the pleadings of the defense of the co-accused of Nicolas Sarkozy, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert, and the court made its decision under deliberation as of March 1, 2021.
"This affair has been a way of the cross for me but if it was the price to pay for the truth to progress, I am ready to accept it", declared the former President of the Republic before the lifting of the hearing.
"I told you the truth during these three weeks, as I said in police custody and throughout the investigation," he continued.
"I still have confidence in the justice of our country."
The national financial prosecutor requested four years in prison, two of which were suspended against the former President of the Republic, prosecuted for corruption and influence peddling.
The same sentence was requested for Gilbert Azibert and Thierry Herzog, with 5 years of professional prohibition for the latter.
After a false start on November 23, this unprecedented trial really opened on November 30, under high tension, in the 32nd correctional chamber of the Paris court.
Never had a former head of state appeared for corruption under the Fifth Republic.
At the time, Nicolas Sarkozy had benefited from a dismissal in this case, but he was seeking to have the high court cancel the seizure of his presidential agendas, which could have been used in other legal proceedings.
In return for this information and an attempt to influence the magistrates who were examining his request, the former head of state is suspected of having promised to bring a "boost" to Mr. Azibert to a prestigious position in Monaco, where the latter was ultimately never appointed.
On the last day of the trial Thursday, the lawyers for MM.
Herzog and Azibert pounded the "sidereal void" of the file for seven hours, demanding release.
"Where is the evidence? There is no evidence," exclaimed Hervé Témime, one of Me Herzog's lawyers.
The day before, Nicolas Sarkozy's lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, had also pleaded for release, calling for "accepting to say that justice is fallible, that it could have been wrong, have gone astray" by accusing his client wrongly.
© 2020 AFP