PARIS – Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has received a definitive prison sentence after the Court of Cassation on Wednesday rejected his last appeal over the illegal financing of his 2012 re-election campaign.
In February 2024, the Court of Appeal sentenced Sarkozy to one year in prison, including six months to be served, for having benefited from a double-billing system run inside his party (formerly UMP, now Les Républicains) that concealed excessive campaign spending.
France’s highest court has now confirmed that ruling, concluding that Sarkozy “personally authorised his staff to incur expenses” despite knowing the costs would push him beyond the legal limit. Throughout the proceedings, the former head of state dismissed the accusations as “fables” and “lies.”
This marks Sarkozy’s second final criminal conviction.
In December 2024, the Court of Cassation – France’s supreme court for civil and criminal cases – upheld a separate one-year custodial sentence to be served under electronic monitoring for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping case known as the “Bismuth affair.”
At 70, Sarkozy remains embroiled in yet another high-stakes case. He awaits a ruling this spring in the so-called Libyan affair, involving allegations that his 2007 campaign received illegal funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
He spent three weeks in custody at La Santé prison this autumn. In September, a Paris court sentenced him to five years in prison for knowingly allowing his team to solicit covert Libyan financing – a verdict he is appealing.
(cs)