In Paris, second day of the appeal trial of Nicolas Sarkozy and two other protagonists of the Paul Bismuth affair, namely Thierry Herzog and Gilbert Azibert, convicted of influence peddling and corruption at first instance. This Tuesday, December 6, for the first time, the court broadcast the famous recordings of tapping between Nicolas Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog, where the private lives of the two men are involved in the legal disputes of the former president.
With our special correspondent at the Paris courthouse, Pierre Olivier
For more than an hour, 34 excerpts from telephone conversations resonate in the courtroom. Two years ago, in the first instance, these extracts could not be heard, due to a technical problem.
On appeal this Tuesday, the loudspeakers in the courtroom are working, and it is under heavy police surveillance, after having placed their switched off cell phones in plastic bags, that the audience listens to them.
Diving into the heart of the intimacy between Nicolas Sarkozy and Thierry Herzog, friends in the city, but also client and lawyer; as when Mr. Sarkozy offers him to come to dinner, after the film that Claude Lellouche invited him to watch.
Sometimes, the tone of the former President of the Republic is more serious, and one feels the concern knot his voice when he evokes the progress of certain matters, such as the Liliane Bettencourt file.
And in one of the excerpts, in February 2014, Mr. Herzog explains to his client that he has just had the senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert online, and that the latter spoke with an important protagonist in this judicial file. .
Then Thierry Herzog evokes with Nicolas Sarkozy a wish of Gilbert Azilbert, “ something in Monaco “, he specifies, a position which is freed up at the Monegasque Council of State and which is of great interest to the senior magistrate.
Nicolas Sarkozy replies tit for tat: “ Remind him today, saying I’ll take care of it because I’m going to Monaco. It was there, in this small detail of conversation, that the judges saw a pact of corruption.
At the end of the hearing, the former head of state takes the floor and says to the president of the court: ” I must tell you that I was shocked by the broadcast of these private conversations with my lawyer. ” And Nicolas Sarkozy to add ” I physically felt discomfort in the courtroom. »
This appeal trial will have to determine whether or not there has been an attempt at corruption on the part of the protagonists.
►To re-read: Case of “wiretapping”: opening of the appeal trial of Nicolas Sarkozy for influence peddling