The former head of state was sentenced on appeal to three years in prison, including one year, in the wiretapping file. He had already been sentenced to one year in the Bygmalion case. If these sentences are not final, the law provides that up to one year in prison, the sentences can be adjusted.
The penalty is unprecedented. The three-year prison sentence, including one year, of Nicolas Sarkozy in the wiretapping case was confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday May 17. The former President of the Republic immediately appealed in cassation, which suspends the execution of his sentence. But he nevertheless becomes the first former French president to be sentenced to prison. Before him, Jacques Chirac had been given a two-year suspended prison sentence in 2011 in the file of fictitious jobs in the city of Paris.
Nicolas Sarkozy had also been sentenced to one year in prison in the Bygmalion case, which relates to the costs of his 2012 presidential campaign. But this conviction is not final, since he must be retried on appeal in November.
Flexible penalties
Whatever the legal outcome of these two cases, and even if these two convictions were final, they will not send the former tenant of the Elysée to detention. Since March 2020, the law provides that a prison sentence can be adjusted when it is equal to or less than one year. For acts committed before this date – and therefore in the case of Nicolas Sarkozy – this arrangement is possible for up to two years in prison.
In the Bygmalion case, the former president faces one year in prison for “illegal campaign finance”. The Court of Appeal cannot therefore condemn him beyond that. In the wiretapping case, the former tenant of the Elysee Palace faces ten years in prison for corruption and influence peddling. If the case returns to the Court of Appeal after a judgment of the Court of Cassation, the hypothesis that it will be judged more heavily is not excluded. But if the appeal is rejected, Nicolas Sarkozy will serve his one-year sentence home, under surveillance (i.e. equipped with an electronic bracelet), as requested by the court. The same request had been made at first instance in the Bygmalion case.
Remember that in French law, each sentence is considered individually. It is not cumulative with another: a litigant who would, for example, be sentenced to one and two years in prison for two different offenses committed before March 2020 could still see his sentences adjusted, even these, combined, exceed two years. of imprisonment.
The Libyan case in perspective
Besides theseTwo files, Nicolas Sarkozy is faced with a probable new appointment with justice: a trial has been requested by the prosecution financial national (PNF) in the case of suspected Libyan financing of his presidential campaign in 2007. The decision to refer him to court now rests with the investigating judges.
In this case, the former head of state is indicted for “concealment of embezzlement of public funds, passive corruption, illegal financing of electoral campaigns and association of criminals with a view to committing an offense punishable by 10 years of imprisonment”. If the penalty incurred is the same as in the wiretapping case and the conditions for characterizing the state of legal recidivism will not be met in the event of a trial, “the effect of cumulative offences” can play against Nicolas Sarkozy, believes Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for the anti-corruption association Sherpa, civil party in the Libyan case. “These are four heavy qualifications”, he reports to franceinfo.
The facts in question being, here too, prior to March 2020, Nicolas Sarkozy would have to be sentenced to more than two years in prison for him to serve part of his sentence behind bars. “After a while, citizens ask questions if there is a stack of procedures for minimum decisions. This will end up disqualifying the office of judges”believes Vincent Brengarth.
“The litigants are entitled to demand that there are no more imbalances and inequalities before the law.”
Vincent Brengarth, lawyer for the anti-corruption association Sherpaat franceinfo
In these three cases, Nicolas Sarkozy disputes all these offenses and proclaims his innocence. He did not speak directly after his conviction on appeal in the wiretapping case on Wednesday, but denounced, through the voice of his lawyer, decision “staggering, open to criticism in law and in fact”. The former President of the Republic will go “at the end of the legal road if necessary”warned Jacqueline Laffont.