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IMPRISONMENT: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy must serve a year in prison, according to the verdict announced Monday. Photo: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to three years in prison. Two years of sentence have been conditional.
The sentence is lighter than what the prosecution had requested, which was a total of four years, of which two would be conditional.
The former president qualifies to serve a sentence at home with an anklet, the court says.
The case was closed in December, but Sarkozy and his co-defendants have had to wait nearly three months for the court’s conclusion. In addition to prison sentences, they risk receiving fines of up to 1.2 million euros, around 12.5 million crowns.
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The 66-year-old former president, who ruled France from 2007 to 2012, along with lawyer Thierry Herzog, was charged with corruption in an attempt to bribe Judge Gilbert Azibert in 2014 to obtain information from him. Azibert is also charged.
The charges are based on police eavesdropping on phone conversations between Sarkozy and Herzog. Never before has a former French president had to answer in court for such serious crimes.
In March, three years ago, Sarkozy was detained for questioning and detained by the French police. He was then released after 15 hours of questioning.
The prosecution believes that the defendants entered into a “corrupt pact.” Sarkozy and the two co-defendants denied the charges in the 10-day trial last year.
– There was no pact. Neither in my head nor in reality. I want to be cleansed of this disgrace, said the former president.
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Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for embezzlement of public funds during his time as mayor of Paris.
At the end of this month, Sarkozy must return to court. Along with 13 others, he is charged with illegal campaign finance in the 2012 presidential election.
