A former president tried for corruption, a first under the Fifth Republic: Nicolas Sarkozy appears from Monday in Paris in the so-called “
tapping
”
affair
, with his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert.
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Denouncing a "
scandal which will go down in the annals
", the former head of state, 65, promises to go, "
combative
", to court for an unprecedented trial.
Before him, another former president, Jacques Chirac, was tried - and convicted in 2011 - for the fictitious jobs of the City of Paris but he never appeared before his judges because of his state of health.
The holding of the trial, scheduled until December 10, is however subject to the vagaries of the Covid-19 epidemic and to a request for referral filed by Gilbert Azibert, 73, for medical reasons.
"I am not a rotten"
The case of the "
tapping
" has its origin in another legal file which threatens Nicolas Sarkozy: the suspicions of Libyan financing of his presidential campaign of 2007. In this file, the judges had decided in September 2013 to place the former president on listens and discovered, at the beginning of 2014, that he was using a secret line, under the alias "
Paul Bismuth
", to communicate with his lawyer Thierry Herzog.
Read also: Libyan funding: Nicolas Sarkozy determined to defend his honor
According to the prosecution, some of their conversations revealed the existence of a corruption pact: Nicolas Sarkozy, through his lawyer, considered bringing a "
boost
" to Azibert to help him get a job in Monaco he coveted - and never got.
In return, this high magistrate provided information covered by secrecy on a procedure initiated by the former head of state before the Court of Cassation on the sidelines of the Bettencourt case and tried to influence his colleagues.
Withdrawn from politics since his defeat in the right-wing primary at the end of 2016, Nicolas Sarkozy faces ten years in prison and a million euros fine for corruption and influence peddling, like his co-defendants - tried in addition for violation of professional secrecy.
The three defendants, whose lawyers did not wish to speak before the trial, contest any “
corruption pact
”.
"
Mr. Azibert did not obtain anything, I did not take any action and I was dismissed by the Court of Cassation
" concerning the agendas, supported the former president in 2014. "
I will explain myself in court because I have always faced my obligations
", he said Friday, swearing:"
I am not a rotten
".
Nicolas Sarkozy has never ceased to denounce a political instrumentalisation of justice, increasing the number of appeals.
Without success.
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