Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced Wednesday on appeal to a year’s imprisonment including six months suspended in the so-called “Bygmalion” affair over excessive spending during his lost 2012 presidential campaign, but he immediately seized the highest French court to challenge the decision.
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The firm part of the sentence imposed on the former head of state (2007-2012), six months, will be adjusted, specified the president of the court while reading her decision.
Mr. Sarkozy, who arrived at the courthouse smiling, listened to the decision without reacting, then left the courtroom in a hurry without making any comment.
His lawyer Vincent Desry, however, announced to the press an hour later that the former president had decided to challenge his conviction before the Court of Cassation, the highest French court.
“Mr Nicolas Sarkozy is entirely innocent, he has taken note of this decision, he has decided to appeal to the Court of Cassation. He therefore maintains his fight, his position in this matter,” explained Mr. Desry.
In September 2021, the Paris criminal court found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of having significantly exceeded the legal spending limit and sentenced him to one year in prison for illegal campaign financing.
However, he requested that this sentence be directly adjusted, at home under electronic surveillance.
The court of appeal also sentenced the nine other people who had also appealed the first instance judgment to sentences of one year in prison suspended to two years in prison including eighteen months suspended, specifying that the six firm month to be carried out could also be arranged.
She also handed down five-year ineligibility sentences for six of them and bans on managing a company for five years for two others.
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 system of double invoicing had been put in place attributing to the party policy of Nicolas Sarkozy, under the cover of fictitious conventions, a large part of the cost of the meetings.
Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state was not accused of this system of false invoices.
But, in its judgment, the criminal court had underlined that the former president had “continued the organization of electoral meetings”, “requesting one meeting per day”, even though he “had been warned in writing” of the risk of legal overrun, then 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 had, as during the first trial, “vigorously contested any criminal responsibility”, denouncing “fables” and “lies”.
His lawyer, Me Vincent Desry, had 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.
Among those who were part of Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, only the deputy director of the presidential campaign team, Jérôme Lavrilleux, admitted to having covered up the double billing system.
In May 2014, he helped reveal the scandal during an interview on BFMTV television. At the helm, however, he denied having been the one who set up the “breakdown system” of electoral expenses.
Mr. Lavrilleux was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, eighteen months of which were suspended, and five years of ineligibility.
This case adds to other legal troubles for Nicolas Sarkozy: he was sentenced last May on appeal in a telephone tapping case to three years of imprisonment, one of which was 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.