The Court of Cassation ruled on Wednesday, November 26, on Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal in the Bygmalion case, placing the risk of a second definitive criminal sentence on the former president, who will face an appeal hearing in the spring related to the secret financing of the 2007 presidential campaign.
Having taken a back seat to the detention of the former head of state in La Santé prison in Paris, this cassation procedure, which postpones the sentence imposed against him, is the last resort under French law in this case.
If the Court of Cassation rejects the appeal, as recommended by the Advocate General at the hearing on October 8, then the Bygmalion case will become the second definitive criminal conviction on Nicolas Sarkozy’s criminal record, after the wiretapping case.
On the other hand, if the court recognizes the merits of the request, France’s highest court, which judges only on the basis of the law and not on the merits of the matter, could order a new trial.
One year in prison
In the Bygmalion case, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison by the Paris Court of Appeal on 14 February 2024, including six months, for illegal financing of his losing 2012 presidential campaign.
In this case, investigations revealed that, in order to hide the explosive costs of his campaign – almost 43 million euros with a maximum allowable amount of 22.5 million – a double billing system had been implemented that charged the UMP (now LR), under the guise of a fictitious convention, most of the meeting costs.
Unlike the other defendants, the former head of state was not accused of running a fake invoice system, but of being a beneficiary, as a candidate, of illegal political funding.
At the first level and appeal level, Nicolas Sarkozy sued “very criminal liability”reproach “fable” And ” lie “. His sentence on appeal, which the court ordered to be adjusted for the fixed part (electronic bracelet, semi-freedom, etc.), was slightly lower than the one year fixed prison sentence imposed in the first instance, in 2021.
Three of the ten defendants in the Bygmalion trial joined the appeal: the campaign director, Guillaume Lambert, and former UMP executives Eric Cesari and Pierre Chassat.
In December 2024, the Court of Cassation has definitively sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy to one year in prison under an electronic bracelet for corruption and influence in the wiretapping case, also called “Bismuth”.
The former far-right defender, now 70, wore them between February and May, before gaining parole before the middle of his sentence, particularly because of his age.
Libya case appeal hearing
The new sentence is certain to further complicate the legal prospects of Nicolas Sarkozy, who is preparing for an appeal hearing in the Libya case scheduled to take place from March 16 to June 3.
On September 25, a Paris criminal court sentenced him to five years in prison for deliberately allowing his collaborators to approach Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to seek secret funding for his 2007 presidential campaign, which ended in victory.
To determine the sentence, the Paris court considered the wiretapping case, and criticized Sarkozy in its judgment for having done so “put this belief in perspective” in the “minimizing the seriousness of the facts”but, on the other hand, sets aside Bygmalion’s punishment because of its non-final nature.
Nicolas Sarkozy, who maintains his innocence, was imprisoned for three weeks in the Paris prison center – la Santé, a detention of the former president that was unprecedented in the history of the French Republic and sparked heated debate.
The Paris Court of Appeal released him under judicial supervision on November 10. The former president will recount his prison experiences in a book, Diary of a Prisonerwhich will be published exactly one month after he is released from prison.
Announcement of publication Diary of a Prisoner has caused a lot of reactions in the world of politics and media. Some saw it as a rehabilitation effort, others as a desire to provide unprecedented testimony about the former head of state’s prison conditions.
This book, which will be published a month after his release, promises a look back at the conditions of detention in Santé prison, Nicolas Sarkozy’s reflections on justice and politics, and the personal and public consequences of his sentence.
The work could also influence public opinion regarding ongoing legal cases, as the former president continues to proclaim his innocence and denounce what he sees as injustice.
