SARKO GUILTY
EX-PRESIDENT’S CAREER ENDS IN DISGRACE AS HE’S SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR CORRUPTION
FORMER French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to three years in prison, two suspended, after being found guilty of attempting to bribe a judge.
Yesterday’s verdict came at the end of a three-week trial in which the 66year-old politician was accused of corruption and influence peddling.
He becomes the first French head of state to be handed jail time since the wartime Nazi collaborator Marshall Philippe Pétain.
Sarkozy, president from 2007 to 2012, bowed his head but otherwise remained motionless as the verdict was read out.
The Paris court heard he used a ‘burner’ mobile phone and a false name, Paul Bismuth, to gather confidential information from a judge.
Also found guilty were his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, 65, and Gilbert Azibert, the 73-year-old retired judge who was said to have been bribed. All three are likely to spend their prison time at home with an electronic tag.
Prosecutors accused the trio of working out ‘a corruption pact’ to advance their careers. But Sarkozy insisted he ‘never committed the slightest act of corruption’ and had vowed to go ‘all the way’ to clear his name.
Among those in court during the trial was his third wife, pop singer and model Carla Bruni, 53. The former first lady had described the charges as ‘a scandal’ and ‘disgusting lies’.
Sarkozy’s appearance in the dock comes as France drops the convention that the country’s executive is above the law. He is back in court on March 17, accused of illegal financing during his failed 2012 re-election campaign.