PARIS (Reuters) -Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in jail on Thursday after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to efforts to obtain millions of euros of campaign financing from Libya during the rule of Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, who is still an influential behind-the-scenes player amongst conservatives in French politics, will go to jail irrespective of any appeals process.
It is the third time Sarkozy has been convicted of fraud-related charges.
Below are the legal challenges Sarkozy has faced:
LIBYAN CAMPAIGN CASH
Prosecutors had alleged Gaddafi sent Sarkozy’s successful 2007 campaign millions of euros in cash, allegations that were first made by one of Gaddafi’s sons.
Five months after Sarkozy was elected president, Gaddafi visited him in Paris, on his first state visit to a Western capital in decades. The Libyan leader pitched a Bedouin-style tent near the Elysee Palace.
The presiding judge said there was no proof Sarkozy made such a deal with Gaddafi, nor that money that was sent from Libya reached Sarkozy’s campaign coffers, even if the timing was “compatible” and the paths the money went through were “very opaque”.
But she said Sarkozy was guilty of criminal conspiracy for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing.
‘WIRETAPPING AFFAIR’
France’s highest court on December 18 upheld a conviction ruling against Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling, ordering him to wear an electronic tag for a year – a first for a former head of state.
Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring to secure a plum job in Monaco for a judge in return for inside information about an inquiry into allegations he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 campaign.
Sarkozy will bring the case to the European Court for Human Rights, his lawyer has said.
Sarkozy’s defence team argue it was illegal to use wiretapped phone conversations made between him and his lawyer – under a false identity – as proof to convict him, and that the judge never got the Monaco job.
An appeal to the European court does not suspend the sentence and Sarkozy will have to wear the electronic tag once a post-sentencing judge has seen him.
‘BYGMALION AFFAIR’
Sarkozy’s conviction of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid was confirmed by an appeals court on February 14, 2024.
He has appealed to the country’s top court, which may give its ruling before the end 2025.
Sarkozy was sentenced to a one-year prison sentence, half of which was suspended. He has always denied accusations that his conservative party worked with a public relations firm named Bygmalion to hide the true cost of his campaign – marked by lavish events previously unseen in French politics.
During his trial, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team: “I didn’t choose any supplier, I didn’t sign any quotation, any invoice,” he told the court.
France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors said Sarkozy spent 42.8 million euros ($45.9 million) on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount.
RUSSIA
Financial prosecutors in early 2021 opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence-peddling related to activities undertaken by Sarkozy in Russia seven years after he left office.
(Edited by Richard Lough and Toby Chopra)
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