The Paris Court of Appeal on Wednesday February 14 sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy on appeal to one year’s imprisonment, including six months suspended, in the Bygmalion affair over excessive spending during his lost 2012 presidential campaign. The former president , said Me Desry, his lawyer, will appeal to the highest national court.
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The six months in prison of the sentence imposed on the former president (2007-2012) will be adjusted, specified the president of the court while reading her decision, adding that the court was “ returned to the quantum required at first instance by the public prosecutor “.
In September 2021, the Paris Criminal Court had found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty for having significantly exceeded the legal spending limit and sentenced him to one year in prison for illegal campaign financing. The court, however, requested that this sentence be carried out directly, at home, under electronic surveillance.
Thirteen other people were also sentenced to sentences of up to three and a half years in prison, part of which was suspended. Nicolas Sarkozy and nine other people appealed and were retried from November 8 to December 7.
Double billing system
In this case, investigations revealed that to hide the explosion in his campaign’s expenses – nearly 43 million euros for an authorized maximum of 22.5 million – a double invoicing system had been put in place attributing to the UMP, under cover of fictitious conventions, a large part of the cost of meetings. Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state is not accused of this system of false invoices.
Cassation
Nicolas Sarkozy, as during the first trial, disputed “ vigorously all criminal liability »denouncing “ fables ” And ” lies “. His lawyer, Me Vincent Desry, pleaded for his release, ensuring that the former head of state had “not never been aware of an exceedance » of the legal ceiling for electoral expenses and “ never incurred expenses “. He felt that he had been ” impossible » to the public prosecutor of “ demonstrate the intentional element ” neither ” the material element » of the alleged offense. The former president has appealed against his conviction, his lawyer, Vincent Desry, announced to the press. “ Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy is entirely innocent, he took note of this decision, he decided to appeal to the Court of Cassation. He therefore maintains his fight, his position in this affair “, explained Me Desry to the press.
(With AFP)