Former French president Sarkozy goes on trial
THE corruption trial of former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was suspended after less than two hours yesterday to allow for a medical report on one of the defendants.
Sarkozy faces charges of corruption and influence peddling after the accusation he tried to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about an investigation involving him in 2014.
This is the first trial for the 65-yearold politician, who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012. He stands trial in Paris along with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, 65, and a magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, 73. They face a prison sentence of up to ten years and a maximum fine of one million euros (£900,000). They deny any wrongdoing.
Sarkozy and Herzog are suspected of promising Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about an investigation into suspected illegal financing of the 2007 presidential campaign by France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.
Sarkozy arrived at the court surrounded by lawyers and bodyguards, in the presence of dozens of journalists. The Paris court has been placed under high security as hearings in the case, scheduled until December 10, are taking place at the same time as another key trial – that of the 2015 attacks at the Charlie Hebdo offices and a kosher supermarket.
The trial started yesterday in the absence of Azibert, whose lawyer requested the hearings to be postponed. He argued his client’s bad health makes it risky for him to travel and appear in court amid the coronavirus pandemic, leading the court to suspend proceedings pending an expert medical report. The trial will resume on Thursday.
In 2014, Sarkozy and Herzog used secret mobile phones – registered under the alias “Paul Bismuth” – in order to have private talks, as they feared their conversations were being tapped.
Sarkozy and Herzog explained that they bought the phones to avoid being targeted by illegal phone tapping. Investigative judges, however, suspect they actually wanted to avoid being tapped by investigators.
Judges have found that discussions between Sarkozy and his lawyer suggested they had knowledge that judicial investigators at the time tapped their conversations on their official phones, as they mentioned “judges listening”. Sarkozy argued that he had never intervened to help Azibert, who never got the job and retired in 2014.
Investigative judges consider that, as soon as a deal has been offered, it constitutes a criminal offence even if the promises have not been fulfilled.
Legal proceedings against Sarkozy have been dropped in the Bettencourt case. Sarkozy has claimed judicial harassment, accusing judges of breaching lawyer-client privilege via wire-tapping. “I don’t want things that I didn’t do to be held against me. The French need to know... that I’m not a rotten person,” he said earlier this month. He said he was facing the trial in a “combative” mood.