Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday was sentenced to three years in prison with two years in prison after a court found him guilty on charges of corruption and influence peddling.
In a Monday afternoon ruling, the court agreed with prosecutors that the former president had formed a “corruption pact” with his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and a senior magistrate to secure a job for the magistrate in exchange for providing information about an investigation into Sarkozy, The Guardian reported.
Herzog and magistrate Gilbert Azibert received similar sentences, according to the newspaper. Sarkozy is likely to appeal the conviction.
The former president is unlikely to spend time behind bars. In addition to the two-year suspension, the sentence can be served in limited house arrest or with an electronic monitor.
However, the conviction and sentence are likely to destroy his chances of mounting a return to politics with Les Républicains, his center-right political party. Sarkozy retired from politics after his defeat for re-election in 2012, but returned to party leadership in 2014 before leaving again in 2016.
The rare conviction and sentence of a former Western head of state comes as a former President Trump
Donald TrumpProsecutors focus Trump Organization investigation on the company’s chief financial officer: WHO official report says it is ‘premature’ to think the pandemic will end by the end of the year Romney was discharged from the hospital after the fall weekend MORE faces some legal threats after leaving office.
Trump was largely protected from legal liability and the threat of indictment as incumbent president, but investigations into his taxes and finances at the state and local levels continued after his presidency. Last week, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance (D) in his efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns.
Trump on Sunday returned to the national scene with an appearance at an annual conservative political conference. The former president won an insignificant vote among those gathered for the conference on the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for 2024.
Sarkozy is the first former French president to appear in court on criminal charges. Although his predecessor, the late Jacques Chirac, was convicted of embezzlement of public funds in 2011, Chirac’s poor health prevented him from appearing in court. Sarkozy is expected to appear again later this year in connection with separate allegations of overspending during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign.
Sarkozy was once a major international political star, visiting former President Obama in 2010, when the two made a trip to the Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, DC, along with Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni, and Sarkozy’s two children. from a previous marriage.