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PARIS: Judges found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of trying to bribe a judge and of influence peddling today and sentenced him to three years in jail, with a two-year suspension.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had denied wrongdoing and said he was the victim of a witch hunt by financial prosecutors who used excessive means to snoop into his affairs.
Retired from politics but still influential among conservatives, Sarkozy has 10 days to appeal the ruling.
He is the second former president of modern France, after the late Jacques Chirac, to be convicted of corruption.
Prosecutors persuaded judges that Sarkozy had offered to secure an excellent job in Monaco for Judge Gilbert Azibert in exchange for confidential information about an investigation into allegations that he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal’s heir, Liliane. Bettencourt, for his 2007 presidential campaign.
This came to light, they said, while listening to phone conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after Sarkozy left office, in connection with another investigation into alleged Libyan financing of the same campaign.
