Former French President Sarkozy Sentenced To Prison in Corruption Charges

By Staff, Agencies

A Paris court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling, sentencing him to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.

Sarkozy is the second former president in modern France, after Jacques Chirac, to be convicted of corruption.

The 66-year-old politician, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted on Monday for having tried to illegally obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about a legal action in which he was involved.

Sarkozy will appeal against the ruling, his lawyer told BFM television.

Prosecutors told the judges that Sarkozy had offered to secure a job in Monaco for Judge Gilbert Azibert, in return for confidential information about an inquiry into allegations that he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.

This came to light while they were wiretapping conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after the right-wing leader left office. The wiretapping was carried out in relation to another investigation into alleged Libyan financing of the same campaign.

The court said Sarkozy, a former lawyer himself, was “perfectly informed” about committing such illegal action. His two co-defendants were also found guilty and handed the same sentence.