French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy loses appeal against three-year sentence over graft

A Paris court of appeals on Wednesday upheld former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's three-year prison sentence, denying his appeal against a 2021 corruption and influence peddling conviction.

According to Al Jazeera report, while the court upheld the sentence, it ruled that Sarkozy's two years would be suspended and he would be required to wear an electronic bracelet instead of going to jail for the remaining year.

Becoming the first French president to be convicted for such charges, the conservative politician has also been banned from public office for three years.

Reacting to the ruling, Sarkozy's lawyers said they would appeal the decision before the Court of Cassation, France’s highest appeals court.

"Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent," Al Jazeera quoted Sarkozy's lawyer Jacqueline Laffont as telling reporters. "We will take this all the way. We are just at the beginning of the process," Laffont added.

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His lawyer, Thierry Herzog, was also barred from legal practice for three years.

Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was also convicted in a criminal trial for corruption but received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011.

The case

Sarkozy, who led the country in 2007-2012, and his lawyer Thierry Herzog were accused of bribing Gilbert Azibert, a former judge in the Court of Cassation, in 2014 to give them information about a judiciary investigation.

In exchange, Sarkozy promised the judge a prestigious position in Monaco.

The court sentenced the former president to three years in jail, with two years suspended, on 1 March, 2021.

Sarkozy was exposed after investigators wiretapped his two official phone lines and discovered that he also had a third unofficial phone, taken out in 2014 under the name of Paul Bismuth, which he used to contact Herzog.

Sarkozy contested the accusation and immediately appealed, saying he had "never corrupted anybody".

However, his conversations with Herzog were played out during the appeal trial.

With inputs from agencies

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