France’s former President Sarkozy loses corruption case appeal

France’s highest court has upheld a corruption conviction against former President Nicolas Sarkozy, brushing aside his appeal.

Wednesday’s ruling by the Cour de Cassation means that Sarkozy – who was in power from 2007 to 2012 – must now wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year.

Sarkozy, 69, reacted by saying he was not prepared to accept “the profound injustice” and would now turn to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the verdict.

He was originally sentenced to three years in jail in 2021, but two of those years were suspended and the third converted to electronic monitoring instead of prison.

Sarkozy was convicted of trying to bribe a judge in 2014, after he had left office, by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about a separate case.

In the 2021 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”.

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

Speaking after Wednesday’s verdict by the Cour de Cassation, Sarkozy’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, said his client would comply with the conviction terms.

Sarkozy has now exhausted all his legal options in France, and his planned appeal to the European Court of Human Rights will not delay the verdict from being carried out.

The 2021 conviction was a legal landmark for post-war France.

The only precedent was the trial of 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.