The National Financial Prosecutor's Office strengthened by the conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy
Sketch of hearing during the verdict of the wiretapping case, March 1, 2021. Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison, one of which was closed for corruption.
AFP - BENOIT PEYRUCQ
Text by: Marine de La Moissonnière Follow
2 min
The conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy to three years in prison, one of which is closed, arouses a lot of emotion in the French political class.
Relatives of the former president, who will appeal, but also his political opponents such as Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounce in particular a political judgment.
In their sights: the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), the young institution, often criticized, which brought the accusation in this case.
For the PNF, this trial was a real issue.
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By condemning Nicolas Sarkozy to prison and taking over the majority of the arguments of the National Financial Prosecutor's Office, the Paris Criminal Court has confirmed
the PNF, this ultra-specialized prosecutor's office created in 2013, after the Cahuzac scandal
.
Composed of 17 magistrates, its mission is to flush out cases of tax fraud and cases of corruption.
In a few years, his intransigence allowed the State to recover nearly 10 billion euros.
Airbus, Google, HSBC but also François Fillon, the Balkanys and, therefore, Nicolas Sarkozy, among others, have already rubbed shoulders with the National Financial Prosecutor's Office and its muscular investigation methods, sometimes criticized.
For example, the fact that the telephone bills of a dozen tenors of the bar were peeled in order to find the "mole" who would have informed Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer that they were wiretapping in the Bismuth affair, had done a lot. react.
One of the supervised lawyers, Eric Dupond-Moretti
, had denounced at the time “
methods of barbouze
” and lodged a complaint.
A complaint withdrawn upon his appointment as Minister of Justice.
Another accusation that often comes up especially within the political class: the PNF would be at the service of power, the public prosecutors being appointed by the executive.
False, answer the magistrates who never stop defending their independence.
The fact remains that recent controversies, notably involving his former boss,
Eliane Houlette
, have weakened the PNF.
The conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy brings him a breath of fresh air.
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