First French President convicted of corruption… Including 2 years probation
Instead of being in prison, you wear an electronic bracelet and live at home.
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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to imprisonment on charges of buying a judge on the 1st (local time).
According to the Associated Press, a French court sentenced former President Sarkozy to three years in prison, including two years probation.
Former President Sarkozy, who took office from 2007 to 2012, was accused of promising a job after retirement from Monaco in exchange for receiving internal secrets related to his illegal political fund suspicion from the then Supreme Justice Gilbert Aziber in 2014.
At the time, French judicial authorities were investigating the situation in which the former President Sarkozy was handed over a large amount of illegal political funds to Lillian Betancourt, the heiress of French cosmetics company L’Oreal, ahead of the 2007 presidential election.
The allegations that former President Sarkozy had been given back money from Betancourt were later found acquitted, and Aziber was unable to find a job in Monaco. However, prosecutors determined that the former President Sarkozy communicated with his attorney Thierry Erzog via a mobile phone under his nominated name, and that he had played with Judge Ajiber.
Former President Sarkozy is also under investigation for receiving back money from Libyan dictator Gaddafi ahead of the 2007 presidential election, and for illegally raising funds for the presidential election by forging receipts in the 2012 presidential election.
He tried for re-election in 2012, but was defeated by Socialist candidate Francois Hollande. He challenged himself in the 2017 presidential election, but was eliminated from the Republican primary.
Former President Sarkozy became the first president convicted of corruption since 1958, when the Fifth Republic was established in France. However, the court ordered former President Sarkozy to wear an electronic bracelet instead of imprisonment and buy a sentence at home, CNN reported.
Former President Sarkozy is known to have denied the charges.
/ Reporter Noh Hee-young [email protected]
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