Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will appeal against a court decision that found him guilty of corruption and influence-peddling and sentenced him to three years in prison, one of which is a real term.
This is reported by BFMTV.
Recall that the verdict was announced on March 1 in the so-called “wiretapping” case: Sarkozy was tried on charges of trying to bribe a judge in exchange for information about the investigation of the financing of his party.
“We will prepare an appeal against this decision… This decision is absolutely contrary to what happened at the meetings,” said his lawyer Jacqueline Lafon, calling the sentence excessively harsh and completely unfounded.
She noted that the former president calmly accepted the verdict, but is determined to prove his innocence in this case.
Two other defendants, former Sarkozy lawyer Thierry Herzog and former judge Gilbert Azibert will also appeal. They received the same sentence — three years in prison, two of which were suspended.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, became the first ex-president in the country’s modern history to be sentenced to a real prison term.
Only one former president, Jacques Chirac, had been tried before-and convicted in 2011-for fictitious employment in Paris, but he never appeared before the judges for health reasons.
This is the fourth case against Sarkozy. On October 16, 2020, Sarkozy was charged with participating in a “criminal group”, in the case of suspected financing of his election campaign from Libya in 2007.
In addition, between March 17 and April 15, 2021, a trial is scheduled for illegal financing of the 2012 election campaign, in which spending figures were allegedly underestimated.
