Leer en Español
Three years in prison is the sentence imposed on former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on charges of corruption and influence peddling in the so-called “wiretapping case” or “Paul Bismuth case.”
Sarkozy becomes the first former president of that country to be convicted. However, the 66-year-old former president will not go to prison because the French justice system gave him the option of serving the first year of his sentence from home, “under electronic surveillance,” while the other two years, which are not mandatory, will be conditioned by the next two trials.
The Paris court also sentenced to the same penalty former judge, Gilbert Azibert, and the former president’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, who was also subjected to a five-year professional disqualification, according to EFE.
The decision comes after considering it proven, after the trial held at the end of 2020, that the three participated in a “corruption pact”, revealed thanks to the tapping of a secret telephone line used by Sarkozy and Herzog, which was registered under the false name of Paul Bismuth.
The former president has other open cases: the Bygmalion case, for suspicion of having illegally financed his campaign for re-election in 2012; and is also accused of having received money from the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 campaign.
