Sarkozy definitively sentenced to one year under bracelet

(Keystone-ATS) The highest court of the French judiciary on Wednesday rejected the appeal of the former president, making definitive his sentence to one year in prison under an electronic bracelet in the so-called “wiretapping” case for corruption and influence peddling. , an unprecedented sanction for a former president in France.

Until now suspended, this sentence, to which is added three years of ineligibility, is now applicable: Mr. Sarkozy, 69 years old, will be summoned before a sentence enforcement judge who will have to determine the terms of his bracelet electronic.

Referral to the ECHR

“I am not decided to accept the profound injustice done to me,” reacted on “remain in his rights” and claiming to want to “reaffirm (his) perfect innocence”.

This referral to the ECHR does not prevent the execution of the sanctions imposed.

“I will assume my responsibilities and face all its consequences,” the former president also declared.

“The appeal that I am making before the ECHR could unfortunately lead to France being condemned,” underlines Nicolas Sarkozy, believing that he would not have seized this body if he had “benefited from a calm legal analysis”.

Nicolas Sarkozy must now be summoned – in principle within a period of less than a month – before a sentence enforcement judge (JAP) in France, who will determine the terms of his bracelet, which will be placed later.

This decision comes as the former tenant of the Élysée must appear from January 6, and for four months, at the Paris court, in the case of suspicion of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.

In the case decided on Wednesday, Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted at first instance on March 1, 2021, then on appeal on May 17, 2023.

The former head of state was each time found guilty of having entered into a “corruption pact” with Gilbert Azibert, senior magistrate at the Court of Cassation, in 2014, alongside his historic lawyer Thierry Herzog. And this, in exchange for a “help” promised to the latter for an honorary position in Monaco.

The objective: for Mr. Azibert to transmit information and try to influence an appeal filed by Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bettencourt affair – a case of donations granted to the right-wing UMP party by the extremely wealthy heiress of the L’Oréal group Liliane Bettencourt (died in 2017) and in which the courts have since dropped the charges.

MM. Sarkozy, Azibert and Herzog were given the same sentence, with the lawyer banned from wearing the black dress for three years.

“Rights violations”

Claiming their innocence from the start, they filed appeals, raising 20 arguments examined during a hearing on November 6, after which the decision was reserved until this Wednesday.

Before the Court of Cassation, which controls the proper application of the law and not the merits of the cases, the Advocate General methodically recommended the rejection of each point of law raised.

Me Emmanuel Piwnica, lawyer on the advice of Thierry Herzog, had criticized a procedure which “should never have seen the light of day”, speaking of a case where “we no longer count the illegalities committed, the breaches, the attacks on rights fundamental”.

The lawyers contested in particular the legality of the wiretapping at the heart of the case, a subject already debated many times in this case.

Me Patrice Spinosi, lawyer for the former president, invoked a ruling of the ECHR of June 16, 2016: “Nicolas Sarkozy cannot be criminally convicted on the basis of exchanges he had with his lawyer” because they do not cannot be “used against him”, he argued.

In 2025, the Court of Cassation will also have to rule on Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal against his sentence to one year in prison, including six months, for excessive spending during his campaign for the lost presidential election of 2012.