Nicholas Sarkozy, former President of France, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for criminal conspiracy

Paris – The Paris Court ruled on Thursday French President Nicholas Sarkozy for a period of five years in prison after he found him guilty of criminal conspiracy in an alleged plan to finance his 2007 campaign with money from Libya. In a sudden decision, the court ruled that Sarkozy would be detained even if he appealed, but he also said that the date of the ruling would come later, reaping the 70 -year -old player to humiliate the courtroom in the handcuffs.

The court found that Sarkozy is a guilty of the criminal assembly in a conspiracy from 2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya, in exchange for diplomatic services. He cleared him of three other charges, including negative corruption, financing the illegal campaign and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy condemned the ruling and said he would appeal.

“This injustice is a scandal,” he said.

The former president said: “I ask the French people – whether they voted for me or not, whether they support me or not – to understand what has just happened. Hate does not really know any limits.”

The court also found two of the closest Sarkozy partners when he was the former government prime ministers, Claude Joyant, and Baris Hortevo – guilty of the criminal assembly, also highlighting them with some other charges.

In general, the ruling indicated that the court believes that men conspired to search for Libyan financing for a Sarkozy campaign for 2007, but the judges were not convinced that the conservative leader himself was directly involved in the financing effort, or that any Libyan money had been used in his winning campaign.

“To obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing the financing of the campaign.”

The court said it could not be determined with certainty that any Libyan money ended up financing a Sarkozy campaign.

Sarkozy stood when the judge read the ruling. He was accompanied by his wife, singer and model Carla Brunei Sarkozy, in the courtroom, which was also full of journalists and members of the public. Sarkozy sat in the front row of the defendant’s department, and his three adult children were also in the room.

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007, denied an offer to be re -elected in 2012, all violations during a three -month trial earlier this year, which included 11 accused, including three former ministers.

Despite the multiple legal scandals that led to the cover of its presidential legacy, Sarkozy is still Sarkozy A influential figure in French right -wing policy In entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.

Scandal

The accusations against him go back to 2011, when the Libyan News Agency and the former dictatorial leader in the country are Muammar Gaddafi He said that the Libyan state has secretly converted millions of euros into a 2007 Sarkozy election campaign.

In 2012, the French investigation port published what he said was a Libyan intelligence note indicating a 50 million Toro financing agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as fraud and sued defamation. The court said on Thursday that “it now seems that this document is likely to be forgery,” the court said on Thursday.

Investigators also looked at a series of trips to Libya, which was carried out by people close to Sarkozy when he served as Minister of Interior in France, from 2005 and 2007, including his chief of staff.

In 2016, a Lebanese-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takuddin Medicibrt informed that he had handed over criticism-filled bags from Tripoli to the French Ministry of Interior under Sarkozy. He later declined his statement. This reflection is now the focus of a separate investigation in the futility of the potential witnesses.

Sarkozy and his wife were initially accused of being involved in the alleged efforts to pressure Takuddin. This case has not yet gone to trial.

Takieddine, who was one of the defendants participating in the Sarkozy case, died on Tuesday in Beirut at the age of 75. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

General prosecutors claimed that Sarkozy had benefited from what they described as a “corruption agreement” with the Gaddafi government.

Libya’s dictator was a long time ago and killed in an uprising in 2011, and his referee ended for four decades in the country of North Africa.

The trial shed light on the back of France with Libya in the first decade of the twentieth century, when Gaddafi was seeking to restore diplomatic relations with the West. Before that, Libya was considered an outcast country.

Sarkozy rejected allegations as political motives and dependent on forged evidence. During the trial, he condemned a “conspiracy” that he said was organized by “liars and fraudsters”, including the “Gaddafi clan”.

He suggested that the allegations of financing the illegal campaign are to take revenge for his invitation as the President of France to remove Gaddafi. Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders to pushed military intervention in Libya in 2011, when the protests invaded the Arab Spring in support of democracy, the Arab world.

“What is the credibility that can be provided for such data that is characterized by revenge seal?” Sarkozy asked in the comments during the trial.

In June, Sarkozy was stripped of his honor medal, the highest civil prize in France, after being convicted of a separate case.

Earlier, he was convicted of the corruption and influence that wanders his attempt to bribe a judge in 2014 in exchange for information about a legal issue involved in it.

Sarkozy was sentenced to wear a one -year electronic monitoring bracelet. He obtained a conditional version in May because of his age, which allowed him to remove the electronic brand after he wore it for more than three months.

In another case, Sarkozy was convicted last year Funding the illegal campaign in his 2012 re -election offer. He was accused of spending nearly twice the maximum legal limit and was sentenced to a year in prison, six months were suspended.

Sarkozy has denied these allegations. This ruling has appealed the highest court in France, and this appeal is suspended