The three-year prison sentence against former President Nicolas Sarkozy was approved this Wednesday by a French judge within the framework of a.
The investigation was launched because of allegations of corruption and influence.
However, there is a two-year exemption so he must serve one year at home and with an electronic bracelet, although he will not be able to vote or hold public office during that period, according to the Court of Appeal’s opinion.
Beyond this possibility, the former president confirmed that he would appeal the decision of the Court of Cassation regarding the so-called “wiretapping case”.
Sarkozy, who ruled the country between 2007 and 2012, thus became the first president to be given an effective prison sentence, since his predecessor – Jacques Chirac – was accused of embezzlement, but did not actually serve a sentence. .
Meanwhile, his lawyer, Jacqueline Lafont, said in statements to the press that “Sarkozy is innocent, the verdict is wonderful,” and reiterated that he plans to appeal the sentence.
Sarkozy, 68, has other open cases: Last week the French financial prosecutor’s office asked to prosecute him for alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential election campaign by Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan regime.
In 2021, the justices convicted him of corruption and influence over a wiretapping case that dates back to 2014, when he was not in office. In this case, Sarkozy and his then-lawyer, Thierry Herzog, set up an alleged “corruption pact” to bribe a member of the Court of Cassation.
