Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced: A verdict that will go down in history
(Baonghean.vn) - The politics of the Fifth Republic were stirred up earlier this week when former President Nicolas Sarkozy was officially sentenced by a court in Paris to 1 year in prison and 2 years of suspended sentence for corruption and bribery. Some media outlets even commented that this scandal was like a painful fall that destroyed the composure of a figure who had 5 years of "dominating" the political stage in France and on the international stage.
Caught in the law
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 66 years old, who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012, is currently an important member of the informal advisory council of current President Emmanuel Macron. But it seems that the halo of this politician's career is unlikely to last much longer, when on March 1, Mr. Sarkozy was sentenced by a court for attempting to bribe a judge by offering to help him get a high-ranking position in Monaco. For illegally influencing a senior lawyer during his time in the presidency, Sarkozy was sentenced to prison, and also went down in history in an inglorious way, as his sentence marked the second time in modern French history that a former President was convicted of corruption.
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| Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (center) arrives for trial on corruption charges at a Paris court on March 1. Photo: Mercopress |
According to DW, the former French leader was sentenced to three years - including one year in prison and two years of probation. However, the court said that Mr. Sarkozy can still request to be detained at home, but must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet. The court also declared that the promises Mr. Sarkozy had made were "particularly serious" because they came from a former president who took advantage of his position to help a judge who had personally benefited him. Not only that, as a former lawyer, Mr. Sarkozy should have understood better than anyone what constitutes illegal behavior.
Since leaving office in 2012, the politician in his sixties has had to repeatedlyfacing bribery chargesProsecutors have alleged that Mr Sarkozy tried to gather information about another investigation into alleged financial irregularities within his party. To achieve this goal, Mr Sarkozy offered to help Judge Gilbert Azibert get a high-paying legal adviser position in Monaco. Under Monaco law, bribery and influence peddling can carry a sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to 1 million euros. However, Mr Sarkozy told the court that he had “never committed the slightest act of corruption”.
The famous "wiretapping" case
According to Western media, the case that was brought to trial earlier this week was prosecuted based on conversations and exchanges between Mr. Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog. In France, public opinion calls this the "wiretapping case", because investigators wiretapped phone calls between the two figures in 2013 and 2014. Along with that, they also investigated allegations that Mr. Sarkozy received illegal money from Liliane Bettencourt - the heiress of the famous cosmetics company L'Oreal.
Former President Sarkozy used the pseudonym “Paul Bismuth” in those phone calls, when he discussed Judge Azibert with Herzog. The leader reportedly said: “I will let him advance, I will help him.”
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| Former President Sarkozy is still favored by many right-wingers. Photo: AP |
Prosecutor Celine Guillet said there was solid evidence that Judge Azibert had passed confidential information about the Bettencourt case to his friend Herzog. One exchange, she said, even showed clearly that Sarkozy had promised to intervene to help Azibert get a position in Monaco.
On the other side of the “battle line”, Mr. Sarkozy’s personal lawyer, Ms. Jacqueline Laffont, said that the prosecutor’s accusations were full of errors and “nonsense”. For her, the wiretapped conversations were simply “chats between friends”. The legal team behind the former French head of state also pointed out that Mr. Azibert never accepted any job in Monaco, but in response to that argument, the prosecutors countered that, under French law, an offer or promise is enough to constitute a corruption crime.
Impact on political career?
According to several reporters from prestigious newspapers present at the trial in Paris, Monday's verdict was considered a "real blow" to the former French President. For example, from the perspective of Lisa Louis - a DW journalist, Mr. Sarkozy had hoped to "score points" in the trial that day, but everything fell apart, and the outcome of the trial even had a huge impact onpolitical careerThat is not to mention that Mr. Sarkozy may be planning to return to the political stage to participate in the presidential race in 2022. But if that plan is indeed true, then everything is now much more difficult, arduous, if not impossible.
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| Former President Jacques Chirac was also prosecuted, but was spared execution due to poor health. Photo: Arab Weekly |
Looking back, it is not difficult to see that, since leaving the highest position when his term expired in 2012, Mr. Sarkozy has been repeatedly entangled in legal disputes. Although he was eventually cleared of all charges in the Bettencourt case, another investigation into allegations that the leader received millions of euros from Libya to "pour" into his 2007 election campaign is still ongoing. At that time, the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was still in power. Mr. Sarkozy's accuser, the French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, has also retracted his testimony that he handed over suitcases full of cash from the Libyan leader. The story is not yet settled, but the long legal mess has sunk Sarkozy's attempt to return to politics in the 2017 presidential race. Whether out of frustration or not, former lawyer Sarkozy has spoken out that the judiciary has animosity towards him, stemming from his efforts to limit the powers of judges when he was president.
This politician has withdrawn from political activities since 2018, but since last summer, he has been constantly appearing in public to promote his new book. People have witnessed long lines of fans lining up in front of bookstores across France, waiting to have Sarkozy personally sign his latest memoir “A Time of Storms” - the book that has been at the top of the bestseller list for many weeks. Perhaps his name has been “warmed up” somewhat in recent times, but with the painful blow of the court’s verdict on Monday, many people think that Mr. Sarkozy should reconsider his intention to “reappear” in the political arena of the Fifth Republic, if any!