This Thursday, it was time for the requisitions of prosecutors in the trial of the Bygmalion case on the excessive spending of the 2012 presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy where he is accused of ...

Bygmalion case: six months in prison required against Nicolas Sarkozy

Nicolas Sarkozy upon his arrival at the Paris courthouse, November 13, 2020. AP - Christophe Ena

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

This Thursday, it was time for prosecutors to make requisitions in the Bygmalion case trial on the excessive spending of Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 presidential campaign, where he is accused of illegal financing.

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The clear and strong voice, a flow of machine gun, the prosecutor Vanessa Perrée releases the arrows and demolishes the defense of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The former president explained again Tuesday

that he was not aware of the soaring spending of his campaign and that it was not for him to deal with it.

“

The candidate is the only person in charge of his campaign account,

reacts the prosecutor.

It is not I who say it, but the law

”.

Then it unfolds: claiming that his signature did not bind anything while he signed decrees implicating the Republic every day, "

it's abysmal

The public prosecutor then puts his finger where the shoe pinches, on the famous warning notes that the accountants claim to have sent to Nicolas Sarkozy to inform him of the surge in spending.

He first told him that he had not read them, then finally that he had taken them into account, "

all this is very changeable

", underlines the prosecutor who comes to her conclusion: by exceeding the authorized ceiling for a presidential campaign, "

Nicolas Sarkozy has strayed from the path of the rule of law

She is asking for a year in prison, including six months closed.

Between 18 months and 4 years of suspended sentence for the 13 co-defendants

Sentences ranging from eighteen months to four years in prison suspended were also required against the 13 co-defendants tried alongside the former president for the excessive spending of his presidential campaign.

The heaviest sentence was required against Eric Cesari, former director general of the UMP, and Guillaume Lambert, who was the campaign director in 2012.

Prosecutors have asked for a three-year suspended prison sentence and a 50,000-euro fine for the former deputy campaign director, Jérôme Lavrilleux, the only one to have recognized the fraud.

Against the three former executives of Bygmalion, the company in charge of Nicolas Sarkozy's meetings, who admitted to having accepted the establishment of the system of false invoices, eighteen months of suspended prison sentence were required.

Revealed two years after the defeat of Nicolas Sarkozy, the scandal had led to serial explosions on the right. The investigation revealed that the real price of the 44 meetings organized by the event agency Bygmalion had been drastically reduced - 80% of the invoices have disappeared - and the rest paid by the UMP in the name of fictitious conventions of the party.

The investigation "

did not establish

" that Nicolas Sarkozy would have "

ordered

", that he would have "

participated

", or even that he would have been informed, according to the prosecution. On the other hand, he "

unquestionably

" benefited from it, thus having "

means far superior to those authorized by law

". The legal ceiling was exceeded by 22 million euros. A thesis vigorously contested by the Head of State during his four hours of questioning.

At the beginning of March, Nicolas Sarkozy had become the first ex-president since 1958 to be sentenced to prison: he had been sentenced to three years' imprisonment, two of which were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling, and had appealed.

Bygmalion case: six months in prison required against Nicolas Sarkozy

Bygmalion case: six months in prison required against Nicolas Sarkozy

Between 18 months and 4 years of suspended sentence for the 13 co-defendants

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