A Paris court on Monday, March 1, found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and abuse of influence and sentenced him to three years in prison, including two probation and one year in prison, BFMTV reported.
The politician held the highest government post in 2007-2012.
Thus, for the first time in the Fifth Republic, a former president of the country was sentenced to a real term of imprisonment (in 2011, Jacques Chirac was given two years probation in a case related to the period of his work as mayor of Paris).
Two other defendants in the so-called wiretapping case - lawyer Thierry Herzog and former judge Gilbert Azibert - received similar sentences.
Initially, the prosecutor's office asked for four years of imprisonment for all three defendants (two of them were suspended), in particular, motivating this by the fact that because of their actions the image of the office of the President of France was seriously damaged.
According to the prosecution, in 2014, through the mediation of his lawyer Erzog, Sarkozy could illegally obtain confidential information from Aziber on the progress of other investigations.
The prosecutor's office claims that the judge, in exchange for this service, was supposed to take a high position in Monaco (this did not happen in the end).
The accusation was based on recordings of telephone conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer, permission to record which was obtained in the framework of another case.
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© Sadak Souici
In delivering the verdict, Judge Christine Mee stated that the acts in question are of particular gravity, since they were committed by the former president of the republic, who had previously been the guarantor of the independence of the judiciary.
Sarkozy used his connections to reward a judge who served his personal interests, she said.
“The evidence of the corruption pact stems from a complex of serious, accurate and consistent evidence resulting from extremely close friendships between the actors, as well as business relationships that strengthen those ties,” the criminal court found in its decision.
Erzog and Aziber were also found guilty of divulging the secrets of the investigation, and the lawyer received a five-year ban on professional activities.
After the end of the hearing, all three convicts left the courtroom - now the parties will have ten days to challenge the decision.
Thierry Herzog was the first to declare his intention to appeal the verdict, then the appeal of Gilbert Azibert was announced, and in the evening a similar intention was announced by the lawyer of the ex-President Jacqueline Laffon.
“We intend to appeal this decision, the President strongly opposes the charges against him.
We do not understand this verdict and are outraged by it, ”the TASS lawyer is quoted as saying.
At the same time, it is noted that the real term of imprisonment can be replaced by another measure of restraint - this will be determined additionally.
The chairman of the 32nd Correctional Chamber of the Paris Court clarified that the sentence to one year in prison can be commuted, in particular, by house arrest using electronic surveillance.
globallookpress.com
© Sadak Souici
We add that during the trial, Sarkozy categorically denied his guilt, and his lawyers even brought charges against the National Financial Prosecutor's Office.
The verdict of the Paris court was met differently by French politicians.
Thus, the leader of the Republicans party, Christian Jacob, expressed unconditional support for the ex-president and called the severity of the decision disproportionate.
Senator Valerie Boyer said that the financial prosecutor's office "effectively prevents" access to the political life of two right-wing figures - Nicolas Sarkozy and François Fillon.
The head of the "Republicans" in the Senate Bruno Retayo called the verdict extremely harsh and urged not to forget about the presumption of innocence.
MEP Gilbert Collard noted that it is difficult to call him a supporter of Sarkozy, but the court's verdict is legally incomprehensible to him.
And the mayor of Grenoble, Eric Piollet, limited himself to retweeting a quote from the ex-president of France from 2012, in which he spoke about the need to enforce court decisions.
"Il faut que les peines soient exécutées. La non-exécution des peines, c'est l'impunité."
#Sarkozyhttps: //t.co/ggDlefTjUo
- Éric Piolle (@EricPiolle) March 1, 2021
“Punishments must be served.
Failure to comply with punishments is impunity, ”Piolle said following Sarkozy.
In turn, the spokesman for the left-wing Génération.s party, Thoma Porte, said that justice "reminded" Sarkozy that no one is above the law.
Experts note that Sarkozy left the mainstream political scene after leaving the Conservative presidential race during the 2017 election campaign, but he retained a certain weight in moderate right circles.
However, the consequences of litigation may prevent him from exercising his influence.
French political scientist Xavier Moreau, in an interview with RT, expressed the opinion that preparations are now underway for the presidential elections in 2022, during which we can even talk about a certain cleansing of the political space, where possible.
“This is a routine preparation for elections in France, as it was ten years ago, when Hollande and Sarkozy were candidates,” said Moreau.
“It is no secret that judges in France have a strong leftist ideology ... and Sarkozy is right enough and not liberal enough for French judges,” the expert added. - In France, judges are not independent from political life. They have a very strong ideology ... And this, of course, is a political decision. I am not a fan of Sarkozy, but this is my opinion. "