Paris (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption in (wire-tapping) influence peddling and sentenced to three years in prison, one of which he should spend under electronic surveillance. The Court of Cassation set the date at 17 December 2024 to deliver its final judgement. Sarkozy is accused of trying to corrupt the high magistrate using a secret connection. This historic sentence makes him the first former French president to be convicted of such offences.
This is the first time that former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is behind bars as sentenced by the Fifth Republic. He is serving time due to the corruption and influence peddling case that arose from the infamous “wiretapping” case, which already found him guilty. The Court of Cassation confirmed his verdict on December 17. The former president will now go through a three-year jail term, one of which shall be under electronic surveillance with a three-year ban to hold public office.
The scandal started way back in 2014 when it was discovered that Sarkozy was using a line registered under the pseudonym “Paul Bismuth” secretly. He reportedly conspired with his lawyer on how to bribe a high-ranking magistrate on some information regarding another Bettencourt affair so that he could influence the decision. The scandal has left Sarkozy’s reputation as an international statesman, compared to the shadowy tactics he used to avoid scrutiny.
A Tarnished Legacy
Now Sarkozy finds himself trapped in a litigation web at 68. Insisting he is innocent of these charges, Sarkozy, for more than 12 years, claims to have faced “judicial harassment”. He has approached the European Court of Human Rights as well with an appeal challenging a verdict that puts former France champion against France’s own judicial system in an intriguing twist.
But Sarkozy’s problems do not end here. He is to stand trial in January for the closely followed trial on the charges that he had accepted Libyan funding for his presidential campaign of 2007-the two sides tip the balance for up to 10 years of prison sentence. The once much-heralded charismatic leader who breathed new life into French right, Sarkozy’s legacy has now been overshadowed by scandals revealing the darker sides of his political career.
Judicial Tensions and Political Consequences
Sarkozy’s legal troubles also revealed a tension between France’s judiciary and its political class. A lawyer by profession, he has been eternally at odds with judges, whom he regularly accuses of bias and overreach. The acrimony has fuelled distrust of the judiciary among his followers and more broadly in the right and helped corrode trust in democratic institutions.
Critics view Sarkozy’s victim mentality over judicial persecution as identical to that of far-right leader Marine Le Pen in using the tactics of presenting legal challenges as politically motivated. The attitudes of the two leaders toward the rule of law risk deepening the democratic divide of a country that is currently struggling with political unrest.
The Bigger Picture
While judges are surely not infallible, incessant attempts to override their authority have certainly created a grave danger to democratic stability. Sarkozy’s case is a stark reminder: no individual, even a former head of state is above the law. As France charters these stormy seas, the reverberations stemming from Sarkozy’s conviction are likely to resound through the country’s landscape for years to come.
This process against Nicolas Sarkozy in the judicial system has marked history in France’s judicial system, making this sentence all the more rigorous. Sarkozy’s lawyers contend that the wiretapped tapes are inadmissible since some of them violated the attorney-client privileges. The majority of these wiretap recordings have been technically challenged but this court upheld most of them, making this case even tighter for prosecution.
These wiretaps and key testimonies were pivotal in proving charges of influence peddling and breaches of professional secrecy. Sarkozy is the first to be custodially punished by a verdict for corruption for a former president of France, and the verdict affirmed that no individual, no matter how high that post is, stands beyond the law. This is a judgment that has concluded a case that has rewritten the lines of accountability within the realm of French politics.
