The former president does not sit on the dock in this case because the French Constitution protects him for crimes committed in the exercise of his mandate
The Paris court yesterday ordered that former French president Nicolas Sarkozy testify on November 2 in the so-called trial of the Elysee polls, despite the fact that the former president had refused to do so, hiding behind his presidential immunity.
Five Sarkozy collaborators have been tried since Monday in a Paris court on charges of favoritism and embezzlement of public funds for having allegedly awarded finger contracts from the Elysee Palace to carry out opinion polls or have benefited from it. Among the accused, Claude Guéant, former secretary general of the Elysee, stands out.
Sarkozy, who was president of France between 2007 and 2012, does not sit on the dock in this case, because the French Constitution protects him for crimes committed in the exercise of his mandate.
The ex-president had been cited as a witness by the anti-corruption association Anticor, considering that his testimony was “indispensable” when it came to understanding the system then in force at the Elysee Palace when awarding contracts to carry out surveys of opinion.
Sarkozy tried to dodge the summons as a witness by claiming he had presidential immunity in this case. But finally he will be forced to testify after the court issued a subpoena, considering that his presidential immunity “does not pose any obstacle to a hearing as a witness,” according to the French press.
The case dates back to the years when Sarkozy was president of France. The Elysee Palace commissioned 300 opinion polls between 2007 and 2012. Some of them, worth 7.5 million euros, were allegedly awarded without a public tender, carried out by companies of two Sarkozy advisers and paid with money from the taxpayers.
Sarkozy has had a judicially intense year. In March, he was sentenced to one year in prison for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping or Bismuth case. And in September, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegally financing his 2012 presidential campaign. The president has appealed both sentences. No date has yet been set for the new trials.
Sarkozy is also charged in another case for the alleged Libyan financing of his electoral campaign with which he won the 2007 presidential elections.
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