The Paris court of appeals has moderated a one-year prison sentence for former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy was facing charges over alleged illegal campaign financing in his 2012 re-election campaign.
Vincent Desry, Sarkozy’s attorney, asserted in a press interview that Sarkozy was innocent of all charges against him and plans to appeal the sentence further. This comes on the back of the court upholding a lower court’s guilty verdict.
The initial one-year sentence faced by the ex-president stood despite prosecutors calling for a one-year suspended sentence. The court decided that Sarkozy should serve six months, suspending the other six.
Throughout the appeal process, Sarkozy steadfastly denied any wrongdoing, attempting to attribute the irregularities to a billing mistake by the Bygmalion communications agency, responsible for his re-election campaign. However, his political party, the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), faced accusations of instructing Bygmalion to fabricate false invoices to conceal overspending in the 2012 campaign also referred to as the “Bygmalion affair“. Allegedly, the ex-president spent nearly €42.8 million (US $49.7 million), almost twice the legal limit of €22.5 million for his 2012 campaign.
Several other defendants allied to Sarkozy received two-year prison sentences, with eighteen months suspended and a five-year ineligibility period. These defendants include Sarkozy’s former deputy campaign director, general manager of UMP, deputy director for the secretary general of the UMP, former campaign director, and former treasurer of the financing association. Sarkozy, however, did not face allegations of creating false invoices.
Since leaving office, Sarkozy has been embroiled in several legal controversies, such as accusations of corruption, bribery, influence-peddling, and various campaign infringements. Notably, Sarkozy will face trial in 2025 on charges of corruption and illegal financing from Libya for his 2007 presidential campaign, claims he vehemently denies. Sarkozy was also previously found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in 2021, which led initially to a three-year prison sentence.
Sarkozy’s sentencing marks the first time a French president has been sentenced to prison since World War II. However, the court decided on electronically controlled house arrest for the former president, rather than prison.
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