The lead prosecutor in an appeals trial of former president Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday, November 30, that he should be given a suspended one-year jail sentence for illegal campaign financing, a more lenient term than his original conviction.
Sarkozy has faced a litany of legal problems since his sole term in office from 2007 until 2012 and has been charged separately with corruption, bribery and influence-peddling, as well as breaking campaign financing laws.
In the so-called "Bygmalion affair," Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2021 on charges that his right-wing party, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm to hide the true cost of his 2012 re-election bid. Sarkozy spent nearly €43 million ($47 million) on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount of €22.5 million, according to the accusation.
"Vigorously" denying any wrongdoing, Sarkozy appealed the sentence which the court at the time said should take the shape of electronically controlled house arrest.
In Thursday's closing statement in the appeal, prosecutor Bruno Revel said he still considered Sarkozy guilty of "knowingly breaching the legal campaign spending limit," but not of having created, or been aware of, the illegal methods of hiding it. Revel said the ex-president should be handed a suspended sentence of one year.
In October, Sarkozy was charged in a separate witness tampering case relating to alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential win. Despite his legal woes, Sarkozy remains a hugely influential figure on the French right, courted by politicians and writing books that are major publishing events. Sarkozy's lawyers are due to deliver their closing statement in the appeal on Friday.