A French appeals court confirmed on Wednesday a prison sentence of three years, including one with home confinement and an electronic shackle, to former President Nicolás Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling.
The case is linked to the illegal financing of the 2007 presidential election campaign.
President of France from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy was also banned from holding public office for three years for trying to obtain information about a judicial inquiry from a judge through a secret phone line discovered through wiretaps.
The 68-year-old politician left the court without making a statement to the press. His lawyer considered the verdict “incredible.” “Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent of the charges against him,” Jacqueline Laffont said, adding that they will use all legal means at his disposal to reverse the sentence.
Sarkozy, who has always denied his guilt, now has five days to appeal to the Supreme Court, but Wednesday’s decision is one more judicial setback for the former president, also sentenced to one year in prison, in September 2021, in another case. concerning the illegal financing of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Then he also filed an appeal against that sentence, which will be tried in second instance next November.
Sarkozy may still face a third trial since French prosecutors asked him last week to testify about the financing of the 2007 presidential campaign for allegedly using funds from the regime of then Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi.
