France’s Court of Cassation has rejected an appeal by former President Nicolas Sarkozy, ordering him to wear an ankle monitor while serving a one-year jail sentence at home. He was found guilty of corruption.
France’s Court of Cassation rejected an appeal from former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday, ordering him to wear an electronic ankle monitor while serving a one-year jail sentence for corruption at home.
Sarkozy had appealed a lower court conviction that carried a three-year sentence, two suspended, for bribery and influence peddling within the justice system.
The ruling is final, at least within France, and sees the former political heavyweight barred from running for office for three years.
However, Sarkozy said on Wednesday that he planned to file a case against France at the European Court of Human Rights.
Sakozy and lawyer conspired with judge
Sarkozy was convicted of corruption in a scheme in which he got confidential information from Judge Gilbert Azibert in another case in exchange for helping Azibert secure a cushy post in Monaco after retirement. Azibert and Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog, who facilitated the exchange, both received prison sentences in the case.
Although nothing came of the posting, nor was the the information seen to have helped Sarkozy, the initial verdict found the three men to have engaged in a “criminal pact.”
As with Sarkozy, the court also rejected their appeals.
Discovery of the crime came by chance when a 2014 wiretap by investigators looking into campaign finance fraud allegations showed that Sarkozy had an unofficial phone registered under an assumed name (“Paul Bismuth”) dedicated to confidential calls with his lawyer Herzog.
Wednesday’s rejection of appeal means a judge will determine the details of his house arrest within the next three weeks.
DW News
