Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison – with a deferred custody warrant – over the case of alleged Libyan funding for his 2007 election campaign.
The ruling means Sarkozy will serve prison time at a later date but before any appeal trial. He is expected to be summoned by the prosecutor’s office within a month to learn his incarceration date.
In addition, Sarkozy was fined €100,000 and handed a five-year ban from holding public office, effective immediately.
According to the presiding judge, Sarkozy acted as the organiser of a criminal association aimed at “arranging corruption at the highest possible level once elected.” The court described the offences as “of exceptional gravity.”
As he left the courtroom, the former president launched a fierce attack on the French judiciary. ‘Hatred now knows no bounds. I will stand by my responsibilities,’ he declared, confirming that he would comply with the summons.
Sarkozy also announced his intention to appeal. ‘No doubt I will have to appear before the Court of Appeal in handcuffs. Those who hate me so much believe they are humiliating me, but it is France that has been humiliated today.”
This is the first time a former French president is expected to serve a prison sentence.
Last March, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office sought a seven-year prison sentence, a €300,000 fine and a five-year ban from holding public office. Sarkozy rejected the charges, denouncing “the excessiveness of the penalty sought” and accusing prosecutors of “intellectual fabrications.”
Le Pen rallies behind Sarkozy after conviction
Predictably, Sarkozy’s conviction has sparked a wave of political reactions.
The former French president found an ally in Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), who took to social media to denounce what she called the dangerous “generalisation of provisional enforcement”.
That provision of French law – which allows a court ruling to be enforced immediately, without waiting for the outcome of an appeal – currently bars Le Pen from standing in elections. She was handed a five-year ban from public office over the European Parliament assistants scandal.
Sarkozy also drew support from within his own party. Laurent Wauquiez, who leads the conservative Les Républicains group in the National Assembly, paid tribute to the “statesman”, expressing both his “support and gratitude” as well as his “friendship” for the former president.
Opposition figures were far less sympathetic.
“Thank you to Nicolas Sarkozy and to Les Républicains for always setting an example,” Green party leader Marine Tondelier sarcastically commented.
“Our justice system has spoken,” said Socialist Party spokesperson and MEP Chloé Ridel. “A former president of the Republic is a citizen before the law like anyone else – and this one is going to prison.”
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