PARIS (AFP) – Nicolas Sarkozy, who yesterday lost his appeal against his corruption conviction, is one of five former French presidents and prime ministers to have been convicted by French courts.
Former rightwing president Sarkozy, 68, has been the target of a long list of probes since he left office in 2012 and lost his presidential immunity. In March 2021 he was convicted of trying to bribe a judge with a plum retirement job in exchange for inside information on an enquiry into his campaign finances.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, two of which were suspended – a sentence upheld by an appeals court yesterday.
Sarkozy has announced plans to take the case to the highest court in France. In September 2021, Sarkozy was also convicted of spending nearly double the legal limit on his failed 2012 re-election campaign.
He has also appealed that conviction, which came with a one-year sentence that he can also serve at home with an electronic bracelet.
The combative right-winger may also face a third trial that would be the most sensational yet, over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. He strenuously denies that late Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi helped get him elected.
In 2020, Sarkozy’s former prime minister Francois Fillon was sentenced to five years in prison, three of them suspended, for orchestrating a fake parliamentary assistant job for his wife.
