Shock in France for the sentence of former president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison for criminal association. For the first time in the history of the Republic, a former president will end up behind the bars. Even in the event of an appeal, the sixth president of the fifth French Repubblica (2007-2012) – already definitively sentenced for the case of telephone interceptions and already bearer of an electronic bracelet – will be imprisoned in the coming weeks, due to the provisional execution requested by the Criminal Court of Paris. The former head of state will be convened within a month by the Prosecutor, the date of 13 October circulates, which will inform him of the date of his incarceration, now inevitable. Not even a possible appeal will suspend this measure, but Sarkò’s lawyers will still be able to ask for an alternative penalty given his age and its proven collaboration with the judicial authorities.
The President of the Court, Nathalie Gavarino, reported that “as Minister, president of the UMP (right)”, Sarkozy, between 2005 and May 2007, “allowed his close collaborators and political supporters, on which he had authorities and who acted in his name” to solicit the Libyan authorities “in order to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support in Libya for the electoral campaign”. For the judge, it was “acts of exceptional gravity that could undermine the trust of citizens in those who represent them”. However, Sarkozy was acquitted of the accusations of receiving stolen goods, embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption, for which he risked up to 10 years in prison.
“The Court cannot establish with certainty that more than 35 thousand euros in cash have come from Libya, even if it cannot be completely excluded,” explained Gavarino. Therefore, after investigations lasting 10 years, no proof of an illegal funding actually received by Libya nor no personal enrichment was found.
In the first statements outside the classroom, with anger and emotion Sarkozy denounced “the scandal of the incredible injustice” carried out today. “Whoever thought they could humiliate me, humiliated the image of France,” he said. The former 70 -year -old president deplomed “hatred without limits” against him, ensuring: “I will sleep in prison, but with his head held high” and “I will fight until the last breath to demonstrate my innocence”.
During the hearing, which lasted over 3 hours, with the reading of the President of the Court of the reasons contained in a 400 -page file, other excellent convictions and some acquittal were formalized. The former Secretary General of the Elysée, Claude Gueant, 80 years old, was sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of 250 thousand euros, recognized guilty of falsification of documents and recycling of aggravated money, trafficking of illegal influences, passive corruption – for having accepted 500 thousand euros – and criminal association. “The Court took into account its state of health, which he considers incompatible with detention,” said the president, explaining that there would therefore have been no arrest notes or any ineligibility.
Former minister Brice Hortefux was sentenced to two years in prison, which could be discounted with an electronic bracelet and a fine of 50 thousand euros. The Court also imposed the five -year interdiction from public offices and the exercise of civil, family and civic rights. Hortefeux, like Sarkozy, has been recognized guilty of criminal association.
In the Gaddafi clan, the former head of staff Bechir Saleh was sentenced to five years in prison and a fine of 4 million euros. The Court also issued a 15 -year -old prohibition, with provisional execution, and a stopping mandate. The Saudi entrepreneur Khaled Bugshan was sentenced to three years in prison and a fine of 4 million euros, as well as a ten -year -old ban on administration, with provisional execution. The Court also issued a stopping mandate against him, noting that “he had been evasive during the investigation”.
The Swiss banker Wahiba Nacer was sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 2 million euros, as well as a five -year ban on administration, with provisional execution, for “his central role in the financial structure of the transactions in question”. In accordance with the requests of the accusation, the Court also ordered the confiscation of its three insurance policies on life and its car. The Court also issued a stopping mandate against him, asking the police officers to remain close to him. The intermediary Alexandre Djouhri, also present at the hearing, was sentenced to six years in prison, to a fine of 3 million euros and 15 years of interdiction from asset management, with a reserve of provisional execution.
“He lives abroad, had an escape strategy,” said the judge president, who issued a stopping mandate against him. Finally, Sivajothi Rajendram was sentenced to eighteen months in prison, a fine of 100 thousand euros and a stopping mandate. Eric Woerth, treasurer of the 2007 campaign, was instead acquitted. Following the death, which took place two days ago in Lebanon, of one of the defendants and the key figure of the case, Ziad Takiedine, the Paris court established that the procedure against him had been archived.
The sentence, already called historical, is triggering heated reactions and many controversies in the political class and French public opinion, in a moment of significant impasse for the formation of a new government. A condemnation that is dividing France between on the one hand who denounces a “political sentence, unjust and partisan”, “an error of justice” which “endanger democracy” and who on the other praises “the independence of French justice”, emblematic of a “solid democracy”.
The first to react was the far -right leader, Marine Le Pen, deploring “the denial of the double degree of jurisdiction through the generalization of the provisional execution by some courts, beyond the person of the former president Nicolas Sarkozy” who, in his opinion, “represents a serious danger regarding the great principles of our right, first of all the presumption of innocence”. The words of the Le Pen are a direct reference to its condemnation to the inelegitability with immediate effect, last April.
Laurent Wauquiez, leader of Les Republicains deputies (right), instead expressed his “support” and his “gratitude” in Sarkozy, who “always served France with passion and commitment”. Wauquiez was secretary of state and minister when Sarkozy was president. “With Bruno Retailleau” and “France of the honest”. “Thanks to Nicolas Sarkozy and the Republicans for always giving the example,” the environmentalist Marine Tondelier wrote ironically.
In the distant 2011, it was the Mediapart independent average that revealed the possible existence of illegal Libyan funding in the race at the Elysée of Sarkozy. In a message after the sensational ruling today, Mediapart thanked his readers who “with their subscription support the investigations carried out”, which led to several scoops. “The Court concluded that the mediapart document at the origin of this procedure was a false,” Sarkozy argued, closing a circle.
Now another chapter of the Libyan case opens, with the appeal procedure to which the former president is already working with his legal team that arrived at his Parisian domicile and with the support of his family united as never before, surrounded by his wife Carla Bruni and the three children. The former model has never abandoned him and today he reacted with an unusual vehemence. First he snatched the mediapart microphone cap, then posted a photo hand in hand with her husband in court, accompanied by caption “love is the answer” and hashtags “hatred will not win”.
On October 8, the Court of Cassation will pronounce on the appeal presented in the so -called ‘Bygmalion’ case, relating to the exceeding of over 40 million euros the legal expenditure limit during its second presidential campaign.