By Luis Miguel Pascual
Paris, Dec 18 (EFE).- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will wear an electronic bracelet in the coming days as part of a one-year house arrest sentence for corruption and influence peddling that the Supreme Court made final on Wednesday.
The unprecedented sentence – the first-ever arrest order against a former French head of state – caused a legal storm given its judicial implications and a political storm given the powerful influence that Sarkozy, who occupied the Elysée from 2007 to 2012, still has in the country.
The Supreme Court’s ruling, which comes 18 months after the Court of Appeal’s decision, brings Sarkozy’s legal proceedings in France to an end, although he has announced that he will pursue the case before the European Court of Human Rights and that he will continue to defend his image in the public eye.
“Twelve long years of judicial harassment”
Retired from the frontlines of politics but still popular – as evidenced by the sales of his books – Sarkozy remained combative, continuing to proclaim his innocence, saying he was the victim of “twelve long years of judicial harassment” in which his rights were “trampled,” posing questions about the political underpinnings of his conviction.
“Am I to understand that my past political life and the resistances I generated created the corporatist and political climate that led to this decision?” he asked.
The former conservative president was convicted of promising Judge Gilbert Azibert in 2014 that he would use his influence to obtain an honorary position in Monaco in exchange for confidential information about another investigation against him.
Investigators discovered the ruse when they tapped a private phone line Sarkozy used to communicate with his lawyer, as he knew the official line was tapped in another case.
Both in the first instance and on appeal, the judges found that corrupt intent and influence peddling had been proven, but not substantiated.
As a result, Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended and the remainder under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. This sentence has now been upheld by the country’s highest court.
In a statement posted on his social networks, Sarkozy disputed the substance of the case, claiming that he had never spoken to Judge Azibert, who is not running for office in Monaco.
He also challenged the form of the case, pointing out that the conviction was based on “fragments of conversations between a lawyer and his client, which are by definition confidential,” an argument that many French experts say is valid.
This will be the focus of his defense in Strasbourg, where his lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, has assured that there is case law that supports them on the issue of professional secrecy in contacts between lawyers and clients.
None of this will prevent Sarkozy from wearing an electronic bracelet on his ankle in the coming days, perhaps as early as Jan. 6, when he returns to the dock for the opening of the trial for allegedly illegally financing his 2007 election campaign with funds from the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
In the second half of 2025, he will have another hearing with the judges in the appeal trial over the accounts of his 2012 election campaign, for which he was sentenced in the first instance to one year in prison, half of which he was exempted from serving and the rest of which he was also placed under house arrest. He maintains his innocence in this case too.
In addition, Sarkozy is being prosecuted in an investigation for allegedly pressuring the witness who accused him of receiving money from Tripoli, though the trial date has not yet been set.
This busy judicial calendar has tainted the image of a politician who wields enormous political influence in the country.
Numerous politicians parade past his Paris residence in search of his support, mainly from the conservative right, where he enjoys a great reputation, but also from the extreme right and left.
In addition, Sarkozy is one of the regular interlocutors of the current president, Emmanuel Macron. EFE
lmpg/ics/mcd