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The Accusations And The Trials
Sarkozy, who served as the President of France from 2007-2012, was recently given a three-year sentence regarding corruption and influence peddling that he engaged in during his Presidential years. Two of those years are suspended and the judge declared that he could spend one year under house arrest wearing an electronic bracelet to monitor his activities.
Before his last trial, Sarkozy had admitted that he welcomed the hearing as a chance to clear his name from all the false accusations he had been facing for quite a while. “I am combative. I have no intention of being accused of things I haven’t done. I’m not corrupt and what has been inflicted on me is a scandal that will rest in the animals. The truth will out,” Sarkozy told BFMTV.
Sarkozy’s communications were being monitored by French detectives starting from September 2013 as part of an ongoing investigation into claims that he had received an illegal and undeclared €50m donation that was paid in by the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
What they found out from the recorded conversations turned the investigation in a totally new and different direction from what they had initially expected. The conversations revealed that the former president and Herzog were “secretly” communicating using mobile telephones that were registered under false names.
On 20 and 21 March 2018, Sarkozy was put into police custody and held for questioning concerning the Libyan connection.
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Additional wiretaps on the phones revealed that Sarkozy had been in contact with Azibert, then a member of the cour de cassation- the highest court in France- via Herzog in order to illegally obtain information about an ongoing investigation into his campaign finances. Sarkozy was charged on issues related to overspending during his 2012 presidential campaign.
Throughout the trial period, Sarkozy fiercely denied ever committing fraud in all his time at office, stating that they “were insulting his intelligence” by accusing him of such things.
Failed Second Election And Supporters
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been accused of numerous crimes, ranging in varying degrees of intensity. But the one that eventually got Sarkozy, who is accused of corruption and influence peddling, was the crime of attempting to bribe a judge.
Due to numerous cases against him at the time, he failed to win his second running during the 2012 election. He graciously asked his supporters to respect Hollande’s victory. His last day as the President of the French Republic was 15 May.
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After the failure, Sarkozy tried his hand in private equity, but was seemingly unsatisfied and abandoned the plan in order to make a political comeback in 2014.
After successfully Running For The Chairman Of The UMP Party, He Ran Again For The 2016 Republican
presidential primary, but only came in third. He decided to endorse Fillon and to retire from politics.
In January 2016, Sarkozy published the book La France pour la vie, which got people flooding the streets to get their copy of the book signed by Sarkozy.
Sarkozy’s supporters are also known for denying the accusations made against him, insisting that the accusations were merely to ruin his political career.