The former head of state appeals to the Court of Cassation in the Bygmalion affair. This procedure is in addition to a first similar procedure in the “wiretapping affair” as well as two ongoing investigations, notably for influence peddling.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 2 min
:quality(50)/2024/02/14/000-34je3wy-65cd32b2005ac575910343.jpg)
A new conviction for Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bygmalion case, this double invoicing system put in place to cover the explosion in campaign expenses during the 2012 presidential election. The former head of state was once again sentenced to the prison is closed, one year including six months suspended. The conviction is suspended by a cassation appeal for the moment because Nicolas Sarkozy’s defense requested his release.
Vincent Déry, the lawyer of the former head of state, denounces an appeal ruling “highly questionable”. He cites in particular the acquittal of François Bayrou 10 days ago in the affair of European parliamentary assistants. An acquittal for lack of evidence, with the benefit of the doubt. According to him, this reasoning should have applied to Nicolas Sarkozy, who “did not know” of this Bygmalion fraud, even if it was for exceeding the legal limit of his campaign expenses that he was convicted.
This is therefore the second appeal for the former president, who has already taken the case to the highest French court in the wiretapping case. Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal on May 17, 2023 for corruption and influence peddling to one year in prison, placed under house arrest under an electronic bracelet. The conviction is therefore also suspended for the duration of the procedure.
A busy legal agenda
These two cassation proceedings are added to Nicolas Sarkozy’s busy legal agenda. Indeed, a new trial is coming next year, that of suspicions of Libyan financing of his first presidential campaign in 2007. Nicolas Sarkozy is suspected in this affair of having entered into a corruption pact with his entourage with the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. And then there is the file within the file: the retraction of Ziad Takieddine, the sulfurous Franco-Lebanese intermediary who had first charged the former head of state before clearing him from customs. Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted last October in this affair.
Finally, let’s add investigations still in progress. One for his consulting activities in Russia with suspicion of influence peddling. The other on his role in the controversial award of the last football World Cup to Qatar, with in the crosshairs of justice a lunch in 2010 between Nicolas Sarkozy, then head of state, Michel Platini, the boss of UEFA of the time and two senior Qatari leaders.
