Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Alain JOCARD / AFP 10:55 a.m., February 14, 2024
The Paris Court of Appeal must deliver its decision from 1:30 p.m. In September 2021, the Paris criminal court found the former head of state (2007-2012) guilty of having largely exceeded the legal spending limit and sentenced him to one year in prison for illegal financing of campaign.
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy will be decided Wednesday afternoon on his fate in the "Bygmalion" appeal trial over excessive spending in his lost 2012 presidential campaign, a case for which he was sentenced at first instance to one year in prison. prison closed. The Paris Court of Appeal must deliver its decision from 1:30 p.m. In September 2021, the Paris criminal court found the former head of state (2007-2012) guilty of having largely exceeded the legal spending limit and sentenced him to one year in prison for illegal financing of campaign.
The court, however, requested that this sentence be directly modified, at home under electronic surveillance. Thirteen other people were also sentenced to sentences of up to three and a half years in prison, part of which was suspended. Nicolas Sarkozy and nine other people appealed and were retried from November 8 to December 7.
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Nearly 43 million euros in the viewfinder
In this case, investigations revealed that to hide the explosion in his campaign's expenses - nearly 43 million euros for an authorized maximum of 22.5 million - a double invoicing system had been put in place attributing to the UMP, under cover of fictitious conventions, a large part of the cost of meetings. Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state is not accused of this system of false invoices.
But, in its judgment, the criminal court had underlined that the former tenant of the Élysée had "continued to organize" electoral meetings, "requesting one meeting per day", even though he "had been warned in writing " of the risk of legal overrun, then of the actual overrun. During the appeal trial, the attorneys general requested a year's imprisonment against him, but this time with a suspended sentence.
“Fables” and “lies”
Nicolas Sarkozy, as during the first trial, “vigorously contested any criminal responsibility”, denouncing “fables” and “lies”. His lawyer, Me Vincent Desry, pleaded for his release, ensuring that the former head of state had "never been aware of an excess" of the legal ceiling for electoral expenses and "never incurred any expenses". He considered that it had been “impossible” for the public prosecutor to “demonstrate the intentional element” nor the “material element” of the alleged offense.
Against the other defendants, the attorneys general requested sentences of eighteen months to four years of imprisonment, all suspended, as well as fines of 10,000 to 30,000 euros and bans on practicing or ineligibility for certain defendants. 'between them. Among those who were part of the UMP, only Jérôme Lavrilleux, at the material time chief of staff to Jean-François Copé and deputy director of the presidential campaign team, admitted to having covered up the double invoicing system. In May 2014, he helped reveal the scandal during a memorable interview with BFMTV.
At the helm, however, he denied having been the one who set up the “breakdown system” of electoral expenses. This case adds to other legal troubles for Nicolas Sarkozy: he was sentenced last May on appeal in the wiretapping affair to three years of imprisonment, one of which is closed, a decision against which he appealed in cassation. He will also appear in 2025 on suspicion of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. He was also indicted at the beginning of October in the aspect of this affair linked to the retraction of the intermediary Ziad Takieddine.