Former President Nicolas Sarkozy is living out his political retirement under strong judicial pressure, as his appeals trial in the “wiretapping” case begins on Monday.
First punishment
On March 1, 2021, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy in the first instance to three years in prison, including an institution, for corruption and influence peddling in the case.
On an appeal he was instructed in the Bettencourt case, he was found guilty of attempting, with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, to obtain information covered by secrecy and influence from High Magistrate Gilbert Asibert.
In exchange: a promise of support for a position in Monaco.
The former head of state appealed.
Piss is repeated in Pygmalion
Nicolas Sarkozy was re-sentenced to a year in prison seven months later in the Pygmalion case for illegally financing his losing presidential campaign in 2012.
Unlike his 13 co-defendants (former executives of the campaign and the UMP and Pygmalion), the former president was not subjected to a false invoicing system conceived to hide the explosion of expenses, but he kept it. The legal limits for these expenses were exceeded by more than 20 million euros.
He calls. His trial will begin on November 8, 2023.
Accused
Neeti is also suspected of financing his 2007 campaign with a secret Libyan fund. The groundbreaking investigation was opened in 2012 after Mediapart published documents confirming Tripoli had signed a 2006 €50m financing deal.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who denies the facts, was indicted on March 21, 2018 for passive corruption, illegal financing of an election campaign, and concealment of Libyan public funds, and later on October 12, 2020, for criminal association.
In October, the judges who completed the investigation announced that they had closed the investigation, but they have not yet indicated whether or not they will order a trial.
Further investigations
His lucrative consulting activities in Russia are the subject of an initial investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which this time suspects the former president of “influence”.
The investigation was opened in the summer of 2020, according to Mediapart, which published the information. It was intended to determine whether he had “engaged in criminal lobbying activities” on behalf of Russian oligarchs.
Since 2019, the judiciary has been investigating “active and passive corruption” at a 2010 lunch between then-president Nicolas Sarkozy, two senior Qatari leaders and Michel Platini, president of UEFA.
Objective: To support Qatar for 2022 World Cup Mr. To determine whether Platini’s vote was obtained in exchange for compensation.
He was fired
The former president benefited from his dismissal in several cases: private jet trips, suspicions of misappropriation of corporate assets because they were paid for by the company of one of his relatives, or his 2012 campaign finance irregularities in an investigation into fines settled by the UMP.
Justice also abandoned its proceedings in a case related to donations made to the UMP by the group’s wealthy heir.
L’Oréal Liliane Bettencourt (died 2017), where she was summarily accused of abuse of weakness.
Presidential immunity
In addition, four former members of Nicolas Sarkozy’s inner circle were convicted in January in the case of the Elysee elections billed between 2007 and 2012 without a call for tenders. A sentence of one year inclusive of eight months was appealed.
The former head of state, who is under presidential immunity for acts performed in this capacity, was never implicated in the case.
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