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| Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy attends a memorial ceremony for the terrorist attacks at Saint-Etienne-du-Louvre at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. © AFP=News1 © News1 Reporter Kim Hye-ji |
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to imprisonment on charges of buying a judge on the 1st (local time). With this ruling, former President Sarkozy became the first ex-president to be convicted after 1958, when the Fifth Republic was established in France.
According to AFP, a French court admitted corruption charges applied to former President Sarkozy and sentenced him to three years in prison, including two years probation.
However, in France, prisoners are usually detained for two or more years in prison, but the courts are highly likely to be put on an electronic tag for a period of one year in prison and face house arrest, so Sarkozy is unlikely to enter prison, the AFP said.
Sarkozy, who served for six years from 2007 to 2012, is known to have offered to give a judge a job in exchange for receiving internal secrecy related to his political fund suspicion investigation. According to judicial authorities, Sarkozy is accused of promising an important position in Monaco after retiring in 2014 to then-Supreme Justice Gilber Agiber in exchange for sharing internal secrets.
At the time, French judicial authorities were investigating the situation that Sarkozy received large amounts of illegal political funds from Lillian Betancourt, the heiress of French cosmetics company L’Oréal, ahead of the 2007 presidential election.
Sarkozy was found not guilty of receiving political funding from Betancourt, but was admitted to bribing the judge and was sentenced to imprisonment. The judicial authorities believed that there was some kind of consultation between Sarkozy, his lawyer, and Justice Ajiber.
Meanwhile, French prosecutors are investigating charges that he received illegal political money from Libyan dictator Gaddafi ahead of the 2007 presidential election. In addition, Sarkozy plans to stand in court again this month on charges of raising illegal funds, such as issuing fake receipts by conspiring with acquaintances during re-election in 2012.
Sarkozy is likely to appeal the ruling, AFP said.