But they will see some truth in his claims of victimisation: that there are indeed some in the Paris “politico-mediatic-judicial” establishment who loathe the former president and rejoice in bringing him down.
Look through another lens, though, and Sarkozy is not some hard-done-by ex-head of state, but an egotistical and highly influential political operator who has consistently pushed the law to its limits in order to get his way.
Why else would there be such a litany of lawsuits against him? Why else would Sarkozy already have been convicted on two other charges of corruption – once for trying to suborn a judge, and another time for illegal campaign funding?
And if the court has now decided to throw the book at him in the Libya affair, maybe it is because the charge of trying to elicit election funds from a foreign dictator is actually a rather serious one.
It is all relevant today because even though Sarkozy is no longer the influential figure that some make him out to be, the arguments about this case echo through the hall of ruins that are French politics.
The right and far-right take up his cause, crying foul about left-wing judicial over-reach. Marine Le Pen – herself banned from running for the presidency because of a “no-suspension” clause in her own conviction early this year – was first to denounce the “injustice”.
And the left sees it all as more evidence of rich men’s privilege – the powerful getting more powerful by blithely ignoring the law.
Nicolas Sarkozy has long since left office, and there is no prospect of his returning. He is a figure of the past. But his case lays bare the divisions in a very divided country.