Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced: why the former president could escape the electronic bracelet

The sanction is unprecedented for a former head of state. The Court of Cassation rejected this Wednesday, December 18, Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal in the wiretapping affairmaking his conviction for corruption and influence peddling final. He was sentenced, among other things, to three years of imprisonment, one of which was spent under an electronic bracelet.

His lawyer announced that the former president would refer the matter “in the coming weeks” to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), but this will not exempt him from serving his sentence. He must now be summoned – in principle within a period of less than a month – before a sentence enforcement judge (JAP), who will determine the terms of his bracelet, which will be placed later.

Article 729 of the Code of Criminal Procedure

There remains one possibility for Nicolas Sarkozy to escape this famous bracelet: his age. Indeed, he will be 70 years old on January 28and will therefore be able, according to article 729 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, to request conditional release. This request would be considered but not necessarily granted…

Whatever happens, the former head of state will not be done with justice. He must appear from January 6, and for four months, at the Paris court, in the affair of suspicions of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. And in the coming months, the Court of Cassation will have to decide on Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal against his sentence to one year in prison, including six months closed in the Bygmalion affairregarding his 2012 campaign’s overspending.