Nicolas Sarkozy, former French President, bags 5-year jail he must serve, after avoiding prison custody in previous cases
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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It is a spectacular downfall for the conservative who led France for five years, and remains popular in the country, and also a lesson for other leaders worldwide, including Nigeria, that the law can catch up with them even after leaving office.
The sentence, which will soon make Sarkozy the first post-war president of France to be imprisoned, was harsher than many expected and stunned allies and foes alike.
The prison sentence is enforceable immediately, with the judge saying Sarkozy would have just a short period to put his affairs in order before prosecutors call on him to head to jail.
That must happen within a month. French media said Sarkozy would be summoned on October 13 to be told when he would be jailed.
Authorities did not disclose where he would be jailed, though people familiar with the French judicial system say it could be in the capital’s storied La Sante prison, which in the past has housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
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After two previous close shaves with the law, a Paris court has finally sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in jail he must serve for criminal conspiracy in attempts to collect illicit €50 million election funds from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, 70, was on Thursday found guilty of criminal conspiracy in efforts by close aides to procure the funds for his 2007 presidential bid.
But the Paris criminal court acquitted him of all other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing.
The ruling means he will spend time in jail even if he launches an appeal, which Sarkozy says he intends to do.
It is a spectacular downfall for the conservative who led France for five years, and remains popular in the country, and also a lesson for other leaders worldwide, including Nigeria, that the law can catch up with them even after leaving office.
The sentence, which will soon make Sarkozy the first post-war president of France to be imprisoned, was harsher than many expected and stunned allies and foes alike, according to Reuters.
“We were shocked [by the sentence] because when we started hearing the decision being read out, we thought his innocence would be recognised,” one of his lawyers, Jean-Michel Darrois, told reporters.
“We hope the appeals court will see things more clearly and will recognise his innocence.”
The prison sentence is enforceable immediately, with the judge saying Sarkozy would have just a short period to put his affairs in order before prosecutors call on him to head to jail.
That must happen within a month. French media said Sarkozy would be summoned on October 13 to be told when he would be jailed.
Authorities did not disclose where he would be jailed, though people familiar with the French judicial system say it could be in the capital’s storied La Sante prison, which in the past has housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
The BBC reports that speaking after the hearing, Sarkozy, who was president from 2007-2012, said the verdict was “extremely serious for rule of law”.
Sarkozy claims the case is politically motivated having being accused of using the funds from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign.
In exchange, the prosecution alleged Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.
Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy had allowed close aides to contact Libyan officials with a view to obtaining financial support for his campaign.
But the court ruled that there was not enough evidence to find Sarkozy was the beneficiary of the illegal campaign financing.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 ($117,000, £87,000).
There was a shocked intake of breath in court when the judge read out her sentence.
Sarkozy could be sent to prison in Paris in the coming days – a first for a former French president and a humiliating blow for a man who has always protested his innocence in this trial and the other legal cases against him.
“What happened today … is of extreme gravity in regard to the rule of law, and for the trust one can have in the justice system,” Sarkozy said outside the court building.
“If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high.”
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding.
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine – who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East – said he had written proof that Sarkozy’s campaign bid was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the €50m (£43m) worth of payments continued after he became president.
Among the others accused in the trial were former interior ministers, Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux. The court found Gueant guilty of corruption, among other charges, and Hortefeux was found guilty of criminal conspiracy.
Sarkozy’s wife, Italian-born former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud, both of which she denies.
Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.
He also appealed against a February 2024 ruling which found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 re-election campaign, then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. He was handed a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.
In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to get a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.
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