Former French president, Sarkozy, sentenced to prison

PARIS-The former president of the French Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on appeal to three years in prison, as part of the trial on the wiretapping scandal, but he will not enter his cell, because the court specified in the sentence that he can serve the sentence under house arrest and with an electronic bracelet.

Sarkozy, 68, accused and convicted of corruption and influence trafficking, has always declared himself innocent, having retired from political life since 2016 - but still very influential among French conservatives - he heard the decision from the dock of the Paris court, with a tense face and immediately announced, through his lawyers, that he will appeal to the Court of Cassation. No president of the French Republic had ever suffered such a heavy sentence. The same penalties as the former president for his longtime lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and for the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert. For Sarkozy, the court also pronounced the interdiction from civil rights for 3 years, with the impossibility therefore of running for political office.

Also for the lawyer Herzog, prohibition to practice the profession for 3 years. The same sentence had been pronounced by the first instance court. Sarkozy was found guilty of having undertaken, in 2014 through the lawyer Herzog, to support Azibert's candidacy for a prestigious office in the Principality of Monaco (which the magistrate never obtained, ed.) in exchange for interventions and confidential communications concerning a case then under examination by the Cassation.