Nicholas Sarkozy Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
Nicholas Sarkozy’s sentence of five years in prison has been controversial, dividing politicians along partisan lines (Wikimedia Commons).
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will serve five years in prison for conspiring with the deceased Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to finance Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign after a court sentenced him on September 25, according to French 24. In addition to serving prison time, Sarkozy must pay a 100,000 euro fine and can never hold public office again.
Le Monde reported that prosecutors also charged Sarkozy with three other crimes related to campaign finance violations, corruption, and hiding embezzlement. While the court acquitted him of all three, the judge acknowledged that Sarkozy had permitted aides “to act with a view to obtaining financial support,” per Le Monde.
Allegations of Sarkozy conspiring with Libya first arose in 2011 after Kadhafi and a Libyan news organization both stated that Libya had covertly given Sarkozy millions to pay for his campaign, according to Le Monde. A year later, Mediapart released an alleged Libyan intelligence document that had details of a 50 million euro agreement between Sarkozy and Kadhafi. Le Monde wrote that the late French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takkieddine corroborated the story in 2016, stating that he gave Sarkozy’s Interior Minister suitcases of cash. Takkieddine later reversed his claims.
Sarkozy has fervently denied these convictions, referring to his conviction as an “injustice,” per Le Monde. In comments after the sentencing, he also claimed that he was the victim of “limitless hatred,” wrote the BBC. The Guardian reported that his lawyers are working to limit the amount of time he is in prison and that they have already filed to appeal his conviction. In spite of these efforts to appeal, Sarkozy will still begin his sentence due to a special mandate from the judge requiring that his prison time start within the upcoming weeks, per The Guardian. Prosecutors will inform him of the date his incarceration officially begins on October 13.
The results of Sarkozy’s trial have rippled through French politics. Members of Sarkozy’s party, the conservative Les Républicains, have publicly expressed their support for the former French president. In the wake of the sentencing, Marine Le Pen, who was convicted of embezzlement earlier this year, expressed her concerns about the French justice system, as stated by Reuters. Other right-wing politicians echoed that the courts had become a tool of those currently in government to target those that they do not support. Threats were even sent to the head judge of Sarkozy’s case. Contrastingly, members of the left have supported the conviction. Reuters reported that Manuel Bompard from the party France Unbowed stated that politicians have a “requirement to be honest and respect the law.”
The sentencing of Sarkozy, who had already been convicted twice of corruption but had avoided prison time previously, is unprecedented in recent French history; Sarkozy will be the first French president to go to prison since World War II, per Le Monde. Yet, the reactions to his sentencing reveal the increasing partisanship in French politics and demonstrate that respect for the courts is diminishing, regardless of political affiliations.