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Nicolas Sarkozy's illegal campaign financing conviction remains in effect

2025-11-26 16:53:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Nicolas Sarkozy's illegal campaign financing conviction remains in effect

France's highest court has upheld the conviction against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for illegally financing his 2012 re-election campaign. He was found guilty of excessive campaign spending and then hiring a PR firm called Bygmalion to cover it up.

Sarkozy, 70, was sentenced to one year in prison in 2024, of which six months were suspended, meaning he could serve the sentence wearing an electronic tag instead of going to prison.

He has always denied all charges. Prosecutors in the case said Sarkozy's UMP party spent almost double the 22.5 million euro (19.4 million pounds) limit on his campaign, spending heavily on rallies and lavish campaign events.

To hide the costs, the UMP asked Bygmalion to bill the party, rather than the campaign. Today's is the second final conviction for the former president, who was in power from 2007 to 2012. Last December, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld a corruption conviction and Sarkozy was ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for six months.

Then, in September, he was sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy. He spent 20 days in prison before being released early in November.

An appeals trial is due next year. Until then, Sarkozy will be subject to strict judicial supervision and will be banned from leaving France. Days after his release, Sarkozy's team announced that the former president was writing a book about his three weeks in prison, titled "Diary of a Prisoner."

An excerpt from the book was published on social networks: "In prison there is nothing to see and nothing to do. I forget the silence that does not exist in La Sante, where there is much to hear. Here, the noise is, unfortunately, constant. But just as in the desert, the inner life is strengthened in prison." / CNA, translated by BBC





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