The appeal trial of the case for which the former French president was sentenced in March 2021 to three years in prison, accused of corruption and influence peddling, begins
“I have never corrupted anyone,” former French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday before the Paris Court of Appeal, where he sits on the bench for “corruption and influence peddling.” The new trial is expected to last two weeks. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to ten years in prison.
The former president was sentenced in March 2021 in the so-called ‘wiretapping case’ or ‘Bismuth case’ to three years in prison: one in prison and two exempt from compliance. The same sentence then received his lawyer and friend, Thierry Herzog, and former magistrate Gilbert Azibert. The three appealed the sentence. Sarkozy, who was president of France between May 2007 and May 2012, reiterated on Monday that he is innocent. “I have come here to defend my honor,” said Sarkozy, who he considers to have been “trampled” by being convicted in the first instance for corruption and influence peddling.
“I have come to convince the court that I have not done anything,” added the former French head of state. «The words are strong: corruption, influence peddling. I am a former president of the Republic and I have never corrupted anyone. Let’s admit that it is a strange corruption, without money, not a penny for anyone, without benefit, not a benefit for anyone and without a victim, because no one has been harmed, “he pointed out. «To convict, evidence is needed. Where is the evidence?”, added the ex-president indignantly.
The ‘Bismuth case’ came to light in 2014 as a result of wiretapping. The judges had tapped Sarkozy’s phone as part of another investigation into the alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, which took him to the Elysée Palace. The judges then discovered that Sarkozy and Herzog were speaking by telephone through a secret line opened under a false identity in the name of one Paul Bismuth.
The court of first instance considered it proven, based on the wiretaps, that Sarkozy, Herzog and Azibert participated in “a corruption pact”. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses Sarkozy of having wanted to bribe the magistrate to obtain information protected by the secret of summary on the “affaire Bettencourt” in exchange for helping the judge to obtain a prestigious position in the Council of State of Monaco.
In the end, Sarkozy did not intercede for the magistrate and the judge did not obtain the position in Monaco. The Prosecutor’s Office maintained during the first trial that Sarkozy did not do it because he discovered just before that the judges had tapped his phone. Sarkozy, who has other pending trials, was also sentenced in September 2021 to one year in prison for illegal financing of his 2012 electoral campaign in the so-called ‘Bygmalion case’, but he has also appealed the sentence.
#corrupted #Sarkozy #accuseds #dock