Court sentences Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison

PARIS (AP):

A Paris court on Thursday sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 campaign with funds from Libya, a verdict that the still-influential conservative leader denounced as “a scandal”.

The historic ruling made Sarkozy the first former president of modern France sentenced to actual time behind bars. In a major surprise, the court ruled that the 70-year-old will be incarcerated despite his intention to appeal. It said his imprisonment would start at a date yet to be fixed, sparing the former head of state the humiliation of being led out of the packed courtroom by police, bound for a cell.

The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007, when he served as interior minister, to finance his winning presidential campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favours. It cleared him of three other charges including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy denounced the ruling as a humiliation for the country.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal,” he said with his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at his side.

“I ask the French people – whether they voted for me or not, whether they support me or not – to grasp what has just happened. Hatred truly knows no bounds,” he said.

“Should I appear in handcuffs before the Court of Appeal? Those who hate me this much, think it’s humiliating for me. What they humiliated today is France.”

ACT OF CORRUPTION

With Sarkozy standing in front of her, chief judge Nathalie Gavarino said in sentencing him that “the goal of the criminal conspiracy was to give you an advantage in the electoral campaign” and “to prepare an act of corruption at the highest possible level in the event that you were elected President of the Republic.”

The facts were “exceptionally serious” and “capable of undermining citizens’ trust in public institutions,” with Sarkozy having used his position as interior minister “to prepare an act of corruption at the highest level,” the judge said.

Sarkozy described the financing plot as simply “an idea”.

“I am being convicted for having supposedly allowed two of my staff members to go ahead with the idea – the idea – of illegal financing for my campaign,” he said.

The court found that two of Sarkozy’s closest associates when he was president – former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux – were guilty of criminal association, but likewise acquitted them of some other charges. The court sentenced Hortefeux to two years imprisonment, but said time can be served outside prison with an electronic monitoring bracelet. Guéant was handed a six-year prison term but wasn’t incarcerated immediately for health reasons.