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For the first time, a former French president is definitively sentenced to a measure that limits his freedom
Former French president Nicolas Sarkoxy has been definitively sentenced to three years in prison, one of which without parole, with an electronic bracelet for corruption and influence peddling. The sentence, to which three years of ineligibility is added, is unprecedented in France for a former head of state.
The decision was taken today by the French Supreme Court, which rejected the appeal presented by Sarkozy.
The sentence, which had previously been suspended, is now enforceable. The lawyers have announced an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
«Nicolas Sarkozy will obviously comply with the sanction imposed, which is now definitive» declared his lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, to the Agence France Presse news agency, but «in the next few weeks he will turn to the European Court, as is now his right, to obtain the guarantee of the rights that the French judges denied him”.
Found guilty of corruption and influence peddling, Sarkozy, 69, will be summoned before a judge for the execution of the sentence, which will establish the terms and conditions of the electronic bracelet.
In reality, in just a month the former president will turn 70: and he will be able to ask not to serve the year of the electronic bracelet.
In the affair commonly known by the name of “Bismuth” – the one used by the former president for confidential contacts – Sarkozy was found guilty of having entered into a “corruption pact” with Gilbert in 2014, together with his long-time lawyer Thierry Herzog Azibert, a senior magistrate at the Court of Cassation, so that he could communicate information to him and try to influence the magistrates on an appeal by Sarkozy in another matter, that of the Bettencourt case. This occurred in exchange for “a helping hand” promised to the judge for an honorary position in the principality of Monaco.
The three defendants have always denied wrongdoing, recalling that the influence peddling did not occur because the magistrate never obtained the desired protection.
Article being updated…
December 18, 2024 (changed December 18, 2024 | 3:39 pm)
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