Elysée polls: Claude Guéant sentenced to eight months in prison

In a verdict handed down this Friday, January 21 at the start of the afternoon, the court sentenced Claude Guéant to one year's imprisonment, including four months suspended, accompanied by a warrant of committal, for favoritism and embezzlement of public funds by negligence in the Élysée polls trial. The court considers that "

", and is therefore subject to the Public Procurement Code like the rest of the administration. The court also recalls that given his long career in the service of the State, Claude Guéant "

relating to public procurement rules.

And that he was also aware of the closeness between the President and Patrick Buisson as well as Pierre Giacometti.

Read alsoClaude Guéant has repaid “all of his debt”, says his lawyer

Aged 77, the former Minister of the Interior was absent from the hearing and represented by his lawyer. He has been imprisoned since December 13 in the prison of Health, the justice having considered that he did not settle in time the sums which he was condemned to pay in the case of the bonuses in cash for which he had already been sentenced. A decision on his request for release was reserved for February 7. With this new conviction, it is now up to the sentencing judge to decide on the terms and the possible extension of his detention.

This judicial past had telescoped the trial of the Élysée polls, which took place in October and November, resulting in an extremely rare reopening of the debates, more than three weeks after the end of the hearings. He had also led the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to increase its requisitions against Claude Guéant: considering that he does not

, the prosecution asked for one year's imprisonment, against six months previously, as well a fine of 10,000 euros for favoritism and embezzlement of public funds through negligence.

Four other former advisers or collaborators of Nicolas Sarkozy, suspected of favoritism or embezzlement of public funds, appeared at this trial. The court decided to condemn Patrick Buisson, also absent for the rendering of the verdict, to two years of suspended imprisonment for misuse of corporate assets.

Former pollster Pierre Giacometti was given a six-month suspended prison sentence and a heavy fine.

Finally, the former chief of staff of Nicolas Sarkozy at the Élysée, Emmanuelle Mignon, was sentenced to six months in prison suspended, a sentence much heavier than the 10,000 euros fine required.

The court, however, recognizes the efforts it has made to finally implement the Public Procurement Code at the Élysée, "

".

Read alsoThe trial of the Élysée polls begins

For a month, the court immersed itself in the exercise of power under Nicolas Sarkozy, examining the millions of euros in political advice and opinion studies billed by the companies of Patrick Buisson and Pierre Giacometti, as well as by the Institute Ipsos, for contracts entered into without issuing calls for tenders.

The former head of state has never been implicated in this case, because he is covered by the presidential immunity guaranteed by the Constitution. But he had been summoned, in an unprecedented decision, to appear as a witness on November 2: during a brief and tense hearing, Nicolas Sarkozy had then refused to answer questions from President Benjamin Blanchet, in the name of the

. An argument "

", considers the court in its judgment.

The defense had argued in its argument that in 2007, the public procurement code did not apply to the Elysée, according to a

that has been perpetuated since General de Gaulle.

It was precisely under Sarkozy's five-year term that the first calls for tenders for the presidency were made under the Fifth Republic.