Nicolas Sarkozy had “no knowledge” of the budgetary slippages according to his lawyer, who pleads for acquittal

Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer pleaded for his release, Friday December 1, at the appeal trial on the excessive spending of his presidential campaign lost in 2012. He asserts that the former head of state had not “no knowledge” budgetary slippages. On Thursday, the public prosecutor requested a one-year suspended prison sentence against the former head of state, sentenced at first instance to one year in prison.

In this case called “Bygmalion”, named after the company which organized the campaign meetings of the right-wing candidate, ten people, including Nicolas Sarkozy, have been tried on appeal since November 8 by the Paris Court of Appeal.

More than 20 million overruns

Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state is not accused of the system of false invoices designed to hide the explosion in his campaign’s expenses which reached nearly 43 million euros, so that the legal ceiling was 22.5 million.

In its judgment, the court emphasized that the former tenant of the Elysée had “continued organizing meetings” electoral, “requesting one meeting per day”even though he “had been warned in writing” the risk of legal overrun, then the actual overrun. “Mr Sarkozy was never aware of an excess” of the legal ceiling for electoral expenses, it “never incurred any expenses”defended his lawyer.