Nicolas Sarkozy definitively sentenced to one year in prison under electronic bracelet – rts.ch

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: Nicolas Sarkozy, 69 years old, will be summoned before a sentence enforcement judge who will have to determine the terms of his electronic bracelet .

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”.

Terms to be fixed

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.

“A pact of corruption”

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

The objective: for Gilbert 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.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Gilbert Azibert and Thierry Herzog were given the same sentence, with the lawyer banned from wearing a 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 behalf of Thierry Herzog, 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 fundamentals.

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.

afp/ami