“I will go to the end”, reacts Nicolas Sarkozy, who is appealing in cassation after his conviction on appeal

“The truth will eventually triumph.” The day after his conviction on appeal for a three-year prison sentence, including one year firm, for corruption and influence peddling, in the case of “wiretapping”, Nicolas Sarkozy spoke on the subject, Thursday 18 May, in an interview for Le Figaro.

After this decision, which confirms the sentence fixed at first instance, his lawyers immediately announced that he was going to appeal to the Court of Cassation. “I will go to the end, because I repeat: I did nothing reprehensible. There is no question that I lower my eyes”, reacted the former President of the Republic on Wednesday. The former head of state continues to proclaim his innocence and assures him: “I am a fighter. The truth will eventually triumph. And all those who lent themselves to these shenanigans will account for it before the French as before the European courts.” According to Nicolas Sarkozy, “the principles of our democracy have been trampled on”.

He is the first former president to be sentenced to prison, his former mentor Jacques Chirac having been given a two-year suspended prison sentence in 2011 in the case of fictitious jobs in the city of Paris. As the Paris Court of Appeal did not accompany its decision with a request for provisional execution of the sentence, the execution of his sentence is suspended while the appeal is being examined.