Former French President, Sarkozy, Sentenced To Three Years for Corruption

Former France President, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been sentenced to jail by a Paris court for corruption.

The sentence is three years in jail, with two years suspended.

The crimes were specified as influence-peddling and violation of professional secrecy.

In 2014, Sarkozy was convicted of trying to bribe a judge. He was then out of office as President. He had suggested to a judge that he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about a separate case.

This sentencing makes Sarkozy, 66, the first former French president to get a custodial sentence.

His lawyer says he will appeal. Sarkozy will remain free during that process which could take years.

If that appeal proves unsuccessful, he could serve a year at home with an electronic tag, rather than go to prison.

The only other French President to be sentenced for corruption is Sarkozy’s predecessor Jacques Chirac, who got a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for having arranged bogus jobs at Paris City Hall for allies when he was Paris mayor. Chirac died in 2019.

In the ruling, Judge Christine Mée said the conservative politician “knew what [he] was doing was wrong”, adding that his actions and those of his lawyer had given the public “a very bad image of justice”.

Sarkozy’s wife, supermodel and singer Carla Bruni, reacted by describing the case as “senseless persecution”, adding that “the fight continued, and truth would come out“.