Former French President Sarkozy Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison for Judge Bribery Charges

Judge bribed to obtain confidential political fund investigation info
Also under investigation for receiving kickbacks from Libya's Gaddafi

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first former French president to be sentenced to prison for bribing a judge. In addition to this charge, he is also under further investigation for allegations of receiving illegal political funds from Libya's dictator Gaddafi and forging receipts, raising the possibility of a longer sentence in the future.

According to foreign media including the AP on the 1st (local time), the French court sentenced former President Sarkozy to three years in prison, including a two-year suspended sentence. Among former French presidents, Sarkozy is the only one to have been sentenced to prison after leaving office. He was sentenced to prison for bribing a judge in connection with an investigation by French judicial authorities into his illegal political funding allegations after his presidency.

However, considering the French custom of detaining those sentenced to more than two years in prison, foreign media reported that former President Sarkozy is unlikely to be sent to prison. The judgment reportedly stated that Sarkozy could be placed under house arrest with an electronic tag for one year.

Former President Sarkozy, who served from 2007 to 2012, was accused of bribery for promising a post-retirement job in Monaco in exchange for providing internal confidential information related to the investigation of his illegal political funding allegations to Gilbert Azibert, then a French Supreme Court judge, in 2014 after leaving office. At that time, French judicial authorities were investigating suspicions that Sarkozy had received large sums of illegal political funds from Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress of the cosmetics company L'Or?al, ahead of the 2007 French presidential election.

Subsequently, the suspicion that Sarkozy received political funds from Bettencourt was acquitted, and although Azibert did not get a job in Monaco, the French prosecution judged that Sarkozy conspired with Judge Azibert by communicating with his lawyer Thierry Herzog via a secret mobile phone and indicted Sarkozy.

Former President Sarkozy is under investigation not only for bribing a judge but also for other illegal political funding charges, so the sentence is likely to increase. French judicial authorities are reportedly investigating allegations that Sarkozy received political funds from Libyan dictator Gaddafi ahead of the 2007 presidential election and forged receipts for donations during the 2012 presidential election to illegally raise campaign funds.