He’ll serve one year under house arrest….
This IS a first for the French….
Could it be sign for America?
Sarkozy, who has denied all allegations against him throughout the trial, can also appeal the decision.
It’s the first time a French president has been sentenced to a jail term. Former president Jacques Chirac was sentenced to a suspended term in 2011 over a fake job case.
Although he is officially retired from politics, Sarkozy remains a potential contender for the 2022 presidential campaign, with his allies regularly hinting at a potential comeback. Monday’s court decision deals a serious blow to that prospect.
During the court hearings, which took place last fall, he and his associates argued that the trial was built on “lies” and politically motivated.
Corruption allegations against the ex-president surfaced after investigators wiretapped conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog as they were looking into allegations of Libyan financing in Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
The recordings showed Sarkozy and Herzog had discussed contacting Gilbert Azibert, a magistrate at the Court of Cassation, France’s court of last resort for criminal cases, to try to gain information on a separate investigation into whether the ex-president had received donations from L’Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt….
image …cbsnews.com