The Court of Cassation on Wednesday rejected Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal in the wiretapping affair, making definitive his sentence to one year in prison under an electronic bracelet for corruption and influence peddling, an unprecedented sanction for a former head of the State.
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 .
This is the first definitive conviction of the former president (2007-2012).
Nicolas Sarkozy “will obviously comply” with this conviction, but he is taking the matter to the European Court of Human Rights, his lawyer on the council, Me Patrice Spinosi, reacted to AFP, deploring a “sad day” where “a former president is required to initiate action before European judges to condemn a State over whose destiny he has presided.”
This referral does not, however, prevent the execution of the sanctions imposed.
“I am not decided to accept the profound injustice done to me”, for his part wrote on ) perfect innocence. “I will assume my responsibilities and face all its consequences,” the former president also declared.
In this case, Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted at first instance on March 1, 2021, then on appeal on May 17, 2023.
The former tenant of the Elysée was 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, so that he transmits information and tries to influence an appeal filed by Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bettencourt affair.
And this, in exchange for a promised “help” for an honorary position in Monaco.
The three men were given the same sentence, with, for the lawyer, a ban on wearing the black dress for three years. Their appeals were also rejected and these sentences are therefore final.
This decision comes less than three weeks before the opening, on January 6, of the trial into suspicions of Libyan financing of the 2007 presidential campaign, where Nicolas Sarkozy must appear for four months.
