A PARIS court yesterday found French former president Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.
The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted of trying to bribe magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.
The court said Sarkozy will be entitled to request to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet. Sarkozy also plans to appeal and will remain free while he does so.
This is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption.
Sarkozy’s co-defendants – his lawyer and long-time friend Thierry Herzog, 65, and now-retired magistrate Gilbert Azibert, 74 – were also found guilty and given the same sentence as the politician.
The court found that Sarkozy and his co-defendants sealed a “pact of corruption” based on “consistent and serious evidence”.
The court said the facts were “particularly serious” given that they were committed by a former president who used his status to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest. In addition, as a lawyer by training, he was “perfectly informed” about committing an illegal action, the court said.
Sarkozy had firmly denied all the allegations against him during the 10-day trial that took place at the end of last year.
The corruption trial focused on phone conversations that took place in February 2014. The confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and his client was a major point of contention in the trial.
“You have in front of you a man of whom more than 3700 private conversations have been wiretapped. What did I do to deserve that?” Sarkozy said during the trial.
Sarkozy’s defence lawyer argued the whole case was based on “small talk” between a lawyer and his client. The court concluded that the use of wiretapped conversations was legal as long as they helped show evidence of corruption offences.
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