Former France President suspended to prison over corruption case

March, 1st 2021 – A French court has found former President Nicolas Sarkozy, guilty of corruption and influence peddling. He has been sentenced to one year in prison and a two-year suspended sentence.

He was accused of forging a corruption pact with his lawyer and a senior magistrate. Judges say there is serious evidence of collaboration among the three men to break the law.

The court had heard that Sarkozy instructed his lawyer to offer the magistrate a cushy job in return for information on a separate investigation. The magistrate and Sarkozy’s former lawyer got similar sentences.

Sarkozy is also due to go on trial in a separate case, from 17 March to 15 April, which relates to the so-called Bygmalion affair. Sarkozy is accused of having fraudulently overspent in his 2012 presidential campaign.

He had served as president since 2007, but his 2012 re-election bid was unsuccessful.

The former president told the court he has never committed the slightest act of corruption. He said, “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 annals. The truth will out.”

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