French authorities said Friday, September 27, they have launched two investigations into threats targeting the presiding judge in the conspiracy trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was jailed for five years. The magistrates' union said the judge, Nathalie Gavarino, had received death threats and messages threatening her with "serious violence" in the wake of Thursday's verdict.
A special anti-online hate task force will lead the investigations. "Freedom of speech, including online, stops when it crosses the line into putting people in danger," the Paris prosecutors' office said.
Sarkozy, 70, was accused of striking a deal with Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 presidential run, in exchange for helping the late leader restore his international image. The right-winger, France's president from 2007 to 2012, was acquitted of corruption and personally accepting illegal campaign financing, but convicted on criminal conspiracy charges.
Sarkozy, who denies wrongdoing, called the verdict "a scandal," and has appealed. But he will be the first French postwar leader to serve jail time, even as he waits for his appeal to play out. Sarkozy was also fined €100,000 and banned from holding public office.
He had previously been convicted in two separate trials, but always avoided jail, in one case serving his graft sentence with an electronic tag, which has since been removed.