Former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy is standing trial on charges of “corruption and influence-peddling in a phone-tapping scandal,” a first for the 65-year-old politician who has faced several other judicial investigations since leaving office in 2012.
Sarkozy is being accused of allegedly trying to illegally obtain information from a magistrate about an investigation involving him in 2014.
He stands trial in a Paris court along with his lawyer Thierry Herzog, 65, and the magistrate, Gilbert Azibert, 73.
The trio face a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a maximum fine of 1 million euros ($1.2m). They deny any wrongdoing with hearings scheduled until from 23rd November to December 10th.
Sarkozy and his Lawyer, Herzog are suspected of promising Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about an investigation into the suspected illegal financing of the former president’s 2007 presidential campaign by France’s richest woman, L’Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt.
In 2014, Sarkozy and Herzog used secret mobile phones – registered to the alias name of “Paul Bismuth” – to be able to speak privately as they feared their conversations were being tapped.
Sarkozy and Herzog have explained that they bought the phones to avoid being targeted by illegal phone tapping. Investigative judges, however, suspect they actually wanted to avoid being tapped by investigators.
Judges have found that discussions between Sarkozy and his lawyer suggested they had knowledge that judicial investigators at the time tapped conversations on their official phones and the two had mentioned “judges listening” in a discussion.
Sarkozy argued that he never intervened to help Azibert, who never got the job and retired in 2014. However, investigative judges consider that as soon as a deal has been offered, it constitutes a criminal offence even if the promise was not fulfilled.
This is the not the first time a former president faces trial for corruption in France. Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was found guilty in 2011 of misuse of public money, breach of trust and conflict of interest and given a two-year suspended prison sentence for actions during his time as mayor of Paris before he was president from 1995 to 2007.
Sarkozy’s name has also appeared for years in several other judicial investigations.
Allegations, which include illegal financing of his 2007 campaign by the late Libyan head of state, Muammar Gaddafi, stood in the way of his attempt to stand in the 2017 presidential election.
“My innocence is once again trampled on by a decision that presents no evidence at all of any illicit financing,” Mr Sarkozy wrote on Facebook.
The former president will also stand another trial in the spring of 2021 along with 13 other people on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign.
His conservative party and a company named Bygmalion are accused of using a special invoicing system to conceal unauthorised overspending.
They are suspected of having spent 42.8 million euros ($50.7m), almost twice the maximum authorized, to finance the campaign, which ended up in victory for Socialist rival, Francois Hollande.
