PARIS. The former president of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy, was sentenced today for illicit financing of his 2012 election campaign, in the so-called case of the false “Bygmalion” invoices.
Sarkozy was not present in the courtroom at the reading of the verdict. The former French president was sentenced to one year in prison without parole. The court specified that “the penalty will be applied and executed according to the electronic surveillance regime”. Sarkozy, regardless of the appeal his lawyers will present, will therefore not go to jail.
Caroline Viguier, the president of the court, defined the alleged facts “of unprecedented gravity”, underlining that Sarkozy, together with other of the 14 defendants, “continued the organization of rallies, allowed new performances, ordered expenses and voluntarily omitted , as a candidate, to exercise a check on the exits ».
In March he also became the first former French president to be sentenced to prison – three years – for corruption and influence trafficking, in a so-called wiretapping case, in which he was prosecuted for an alleged attempt to bribe a judge.
The owner of Bygmalion, Bastien Millot, was also sentenced to three years, with a suspension of 18 months, for “complicity in the use” of false invoices, complicity, fraud and complicity in illegal campaign funding.