Sarkozy to be put on trial for ‘corruption’ of judge

NICOLAS SARKOZY, the former president of France, will face trial for influence peddling and the “active corruption” of a judge, according to French reports.

The charges, which Mr Sarkozy plans to appeal against, centre around attempts to secure leaked details of an inquiry into alleged electoral funding fraud. The decision to press charges is the latest legal blow to the former conservative leader, just days after he was placed under formal investigation over whether he had secretly received €50million (£44million) from Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator, to fund his successful 2007 presidential campaign.

Mr Sarkozy is due to stand trial in a separate case of “illegal campaign funding” of his failed 2012 re-election bid. But if his appeal against the new charges fails, it will be the first time a former French president will stand trial for “active corruption” committed while in office. The charge carries a maximum sentence of ten years in prison and a €150,000 fine. “Influence peddling” is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison and a €500,000 fine. Mr Sarkozy denies all charges.

In a statement, his lawyers said his appeal hearing would take place on June 25. “Nicolas Sarkozy will … calmly wait for the result of the motion for a declaration of invalidity. He does not doubt that once again the truth will triumph,” they said.

While the case is separate to the allegations that Gaddafi funded Mr Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign, it came about while judges were tapping his phone over the Libya probe.

They realised Mr Sarkozy was also communicating with Thierry Herzog, his lawyer, using a separate mobile phone, under the false name Paul Bismuth. When they bugged this device, prosecutors said they overheard the pair conspiring to give Gilbert Azibert, a magistrate from a top appeals court, a job in Monaco in return for information on the so-called Bettencourt affair.

At the time, Mr Sarkozy faced allegations that he accepted illicit brown envelopes of cash from Liliane Bettencourt, the L’oreal heiress, for his 2007 presidential campaign. He was cleared in 2013 of taking advantage of the elderly woman while she was too frail to understand what she was doing.

Mr Azibert never got the posting in Monaco but he will also stand trial, along with Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer. Mr Sarkozy was reportedly already resigned to the fact that judges would send him to trial over the affair after national financial prosecutors called for him to do so last October. In a damning résumé of the case, the prosecutors said the calls under false identities between Mr Sarkozy and his lawyer were worthy of “hardened delinquents”.

On Sunday, Mr Sarkozy said the charges were “manipulation on an unprecedented scale” and promised to “crush the authors of this plot”.

Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy’s predecessor, was convicted in 2011 of misusing public funds to keep political allies in fake jobs while he was the mayor of Paris.