When the verdict came, he reduced the Paris court to a stunning silence: Nicolas Sarkozy was guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended.
The President of France from 2007 to 2012 played an “active role” in forging a “corruption pact” with his lawyer and a senior magistrate to obtain information on a separate investigation into political donations, said the chief judge, and there was “serious and concordant evidence ”of collaboration between the three men to break the law.
The conviction and sentence were dramatic, unexpected and historic. Sarkozy, 66, has repeatedly declared his innocence and considered the charges an “insult to my intelligence”.
However, he is unlikely to spend a day in prison. His lawyer has announced that he intends to appeal a case that would lead to a new trial, and a sentence of one year in prison can be served out of prison under certain conditions, including the use of an electronic bracelet or limited home confinement.
Sarkozy did not comment on leaving the court, but his wife, the supermodel who became singer Carla Bruni, described the verdict on Instagram as an “injustice”.
“What relentless absurdity, my love,” she wrote. “The battle continues, the truth will appear.”
Although Sarkozy has not been banned from holding public office, the verdict, delivered on Monday afternoon, is likely to crush his hopes of returning to public life in time for next year’s presidential election. His center-right party, Les Républicains (LR), has been striving to present a reliable candidate since Sarkozy’s former prime minister, François Fillon, was involved in a scandal during the 2017 presidential race, paving the way for the victory of Emmanuel Macron.
At his trial last year, the court heard how Sarkozy instructed his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to offer magistrate Gilbert Azibert a comfortable job at the Côte d’Azur in exchange for information about an investigation to see if he had received donations from the sick Heiress L’Oréal Liliane Bettencourt.
Quick guide
Nicolas Sarkozy’s legal problems
Judge bribe
Sarkozy was convicted of corruption on March 1 on allegations that he offered an excellent job in Monaco to a judge to obtain information on a separate investigation into the financing of his successful 2007 election campaign.
Libya financing
Since 2013, investigating magistrates have been examining claims that Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime helped finance Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign.
Gaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, was the first to expose the claims in 2011, when he said that Sarkozy should “return the money he took from Libya to finance his election campaign”. A year later, the Mediapart website published a document saying that Gaddafi had agreed to support Sarkozy with up to € 50 million.
Sarkozy was accused in 2018 of accepting bribes, illegal campaign financing and illegal receipt of Libyan funds. In October 2020, he was accused of conspiring to commit a crime.
Case Bettencourt
In another controversy linked to the 2007 campaign, Sarkozy’s then UMP party was accused of accepting illicit payments from L’Oreal’s heiress Liliane Bettencourt in envelopes full of cash.
After a lengthy investigation that he claimed was politically motivated, Sarkozy was acquitted for taking advantage of Bettencourt while she was too fragile to understand what he was doing.
Bygmalion case
Sarkozy will face trial in March and April for the illegal funding of his failed 2012 re-election attempt, which featured huge American-style stadium rallies.
His campaign exceeded the French campaign’s strict spending limits by a large margin, a fact that was supposedly hidden by a system of false invoices that were fraudulently treated as party expenses. Sarkozy has denied any knowledge of the alleged fraud known as the “Bygmalion” case.
Exceeding campaign spending limits carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a fine.
Karachi case
A long-running investigation involving two former Sarkozy aides, accused by judges investigating alleged bribes to an arms deal with Pakistan, concluded when Sarkozy was Minister of Budget.
A shell company was reportedly used to channel bribes for the unsuccessful 1995 candidacy of then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur, which Sarkozy helped manage.
Sarkozy was interviewed as a witness, not a suspect.
At the Balladur trial, prosecutors asked that the 91-year-old be sentenced to a one-year suspended sentence and a € 50,000 fine.
More influence traffic
French financial crime prosecutors said in January 2021 that they opened an investigation into influence peddling against Sarkozy in consultancy activities he carried out in Russia.
The Mediapart website said the investigation was aimed at a payment by Russian insurer Reso-Guarantee of € 3 million in 2019, while Sarkozy worked as a consultant, well after leaving office.
According to the report, investigators are trying to see whether Sarkozy acted only as a consultant – which would be perfectly legal – “or whether he engaged in potentially criminal lobbying on behalf of Russian oligarchs”. Agence France-Presse
The Bettencourt case ended up being shelved, but at that point an investigation into corruption and influence peddling was opened.
Judge Christine Mée, president of the court, said there was serious evidence of a “corruption pact” between Sarkozy, Herzog and Azibert. Herzog, 65, and Azibert, 73, received similar three-year sentences, two of which were suspended.
The case, based on telephone taps, became known as the “Bismuth case”; Paul Bismuth was the name that the former president used in connection with two phones used to communicate with Herzog.
French detectives began monitoring Sarkozy’s communications in September 2013 as part of an investigation into allegations that he had received an illegal, undeclared € 50 million donation from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his successful 2007 presidential campaign .
What they heard from the recorded conversations pointed the investigators in a new and unexpected direction. They revealed that the former president and Herzog were communicating “secretly” via cell phones registered under false names.
Additional wiretapping on these phones picked up conversations suggesting that Sarkozy had contacted Azibert, then a member of the cour de cassation – France’s highest court – via Herzog to request confidential information about the Bettencourt case.
Sarkozy, who is involved in several legal cases, has repeatedly denied charges of any wrongdoing in all past and present investigations.
He spent years trying to get the bismuth charges dismissed and the case dismissed. Herzog argued that the secretly recorded conversations between him and Sarkozy were protected by the attorney-client’s privilege and could not be used as evidence.
Before his trial last year, Sarkozy said he welcomed the audience as a chance to “clear my name”.
“I am combative. I have no intention of being accused of things I didn’t do. I am not corrupt and what has been inflicted on me is a scandal that will remain for the annals. The truth will come, ”Sarkozy told BFMTV.
The former president is due to appear in court later this month in yet another case, the “Bygmalion case”, in which he is accused of spending too much on his 2012 re-election bid.
He is also being investigated for allegations of influence peddling and “laundering of crime or misdemeanor” related to consultancy activities in Russia.
Sarkozy’s supporters have accused French judges of making the former president the target of an unjust and unforgiving legal crusade.
He is the first ex-president to appear in court on criminal charges. His predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was charged and convicted, receiving a two-year suspended sentence for false jobs at City Hall when he was mayor of Paris – but he was spared from testifying because of ill health.
At the end of his two-week trial last year, Sarkozy said: “This case has been the station of the cross for me. But if that was the price to pay for the truth to be revealed, I am ready to accept it … I still have confidence in the justice of our country ”.
Herzog was also convicted of violating the rules of professional secrecy between him and his client. Herzog and Azibert have announced that they will appeal against their conviction.
After the verdict, Damien Abad, the chairman of the LR parliamentary group, tweeted: “Today I want to express my friendship with President Nicolas Sarkozy again. His life has been a succession of trials that he never failed to overcome with energy and courage. Once again, he will prove it. I’m sure of it. “