PARIS, March 1, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – A French court is to hand down its
verdict in the corruption trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy on
Monday, with prosecutors demanding prison time for the 66-year-old.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, is accused of offering a plum
job in Monaco to a judge in exchange for inside information on an inquiry
into his campaign finances.
The former president told the court he had “never committed the slightest
act of corruption”.
Prosecutors called for him to be jailed for four years and serve a minimum
of two, and asked for the same punishment for his co-defendants — lawyer
Thierry Herzog and judge Gilbert Azibert.
“The events would not have occurred if a former president, as well as a
lawyer, had kept in mind the magnitude, the responsibility, and the duties of
his office,” prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon told the court as the trial was
wound up in December.
The graft and influence-peddling charges — among several legal cases
against him — carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of one million
euros ($1.2 million).
– ‘With certainty’ –
Prosecutors say Sarkozy and Herzog tried to bribe judge Azibert for
information on an inquiry into claims the former leader had received illicit
payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt during his successful 2007
presidential campaign.
The state’s case is based on wiretaps of conversations between Herzog and
Sarkozy, with prosecutors accusing him of “using secret telephone lines” to
cover up his attempt to infiltrate the court.
Prosecutor Celine Guillet said it had been established “with certainty”
that judge Azibert transmitted confidential information about the Bettencourt
case on an unofficial line to his friend Herzog.
One conversation “overwhelmingly” showed that Sarkozy had promised to
intervene to get Azibert a post in Monaco, she said.
Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont lashed out at the flaws and “emptiness”
of the prosecutor’s accusations, with the defence also claiming that the
tapped conversations had been just “chats between friends”.
Azibert, who was a senior adviser at France’s highest appeals court at the
time, never got the job in Monaco.
Sarkozy’s lawyers argued this pointed to the absence of corruption but
prosecutors said French law makes no distinction between a successful
corruption attempt and a failed one.
– More to come –
Sarkozy was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing in the Bettencourt affair
but still faces a raft of other legal woes.
Allegations that he received millions of euros from Libyan dictator Moamer
Kadhafi for his 2007 election campaign are still being investigated, and he
is also accused of fraudulently overspending in his failed 2012 reelection
bid.
In January, prosecutors opened another probe into alleged influence-
peddling by Sarkozy over his advisory activities in Russia.
News website Mediapart said the probe targeted a payment by Russian
insurance firm Reso-Garantia of 3 million euros in 2019 when Sarkozy was
working as an adviser, well after leaving office.
Sarkozy’s long-running legal travails helped sink his comeback bid for the
2017 presidential vote, but he has surfed on a wave of popularity since
announcing his retirement from politics in 2018.
Only one other French president, Sarkozy’s political mentor Jacques Chirac,
was put on trial after leaving office, but he was excused from having to
attend his 2011 corruption trial because of ill health.
Chirac received a two-year suspended sentence over the creation of ghost
jobs at the Paris city hall to fund his party when he was mayor.