Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
clear sky
weather
OMAN
25°C / 25°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Sarkozy convicted of corruption, likely to escape jail time

1597397
1597397
minus
plus

PARIS: France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption on Monday and sentenced to three years in prison, a stunning fall from grace for a man who led his country and bestrode the world stage for five years.


Financial prosecutors convinced a Paris court that after Sarkozy left office he tried to bribe a judge and influence-peddle in exchange for confidential information relating to an investigation into his 2007 campaign finances.


However, the 66-year-old Sarkozy, who denied all wrongdoing, may not spend any time in prison. Two years of his sentence were suspended, and the presiding judge said she would accept allowing him to be tagged with an electronic bracelet outside of prison for the remaining year.


“He took advantage of his status and the relationships he had made,” presiding judge Christine Mee told the court.


Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, is the second head of state in modern-day France to be convicted of corruption.


Retired from politics but still influential among conservatives, Sarkozy has 10 days to appeal the ruling. He left the court without speaking.


Prosecutors said Sarkozy had offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for a judge, Gilbert Azibert, in return for inside information about an inquiry into allegations that he had accepted illegal payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.


Sarkozy said he was the victim of a witch-hunt by financial prosecutors who had used excessive means to snoop on his affairs.


ANOTHER TRIAL LOOMS


Sarkozy burst onto the world stage as a reformer full of ideas who would break with France’s stagnant past on the domestic front and restore the birthplace of human rights to a place of prominence in international affairs.


Sarkozy earned himself the moniker of the Gallic Thatcher, undertaking market-driven reforms such as raising the retirement age in France, loosening the 35-hour work week and tweaking the tax system to encourage overtime. — Reuters


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon