How Nicolas Sarkozy was definitively convicted in the wiretapping affair

It is an earthquake in the history of public life under the V^e Republic. For the first time, a former head of state was definitively sentenced to a prison sentence, under an electronic bracelet, for acts of violation of integrity. The Court of Cassation confirmed, Wednesday December 18, the conviction on appeal, in 2023, of Nicolas Sarkozy, for “corruption” and “influence peddling”, to three years in prison, of which one year is closed, and to three years of ineligibility, in the so-called wiretapping affair. The former President of the Republic will be summoned, in several weeks, by a sentence enforcement judge who will determine the terms of his electronic bracelet.

The appeals of Mr. Sarkozy’s historic lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert were also rejected by the Court of Cassation, which examines compliance with the rules of law and therefore confirmed their conviction to the same sentence (three years, one of which is fixed) for “violation of the secrecy of the investigation”, “corruption” and “influence peddling”.

As soon as the court’s ruling was announced, Mr. Sarkozy declared, through his lawyer Patrice Spinosi, that he was going to take “in the coming weeks the European Court of Human Rights [CEDH] (…) to obtain the guarantee of rights that French judges have denied him.” “We have a very serious chance of obtaining a conviction from France in three or four years. We could then refer the matter again to the French courts which would have the obligation to review Mr. Sarkozy’s conviction. wants to believe M^e Thorny.

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