The appeal trial of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy in the so-called "
Bygmalion
" case on the illegal financing of his lost 2012 presidential campaign will begin on November 8, 2023 and end a month later, we learned. Wednesday, October 5 with the Paris Court of Appeal.
The trial, scheduled until December 8, 2023, will take place three half days a week, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and Friday mornings.
At first instance, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison.
Read also“People are not fooled by anything”: Nicolas Sarkozy reacts to his conviction in the Bygmalion case
In September 2021, the Paris Criminal Court declared Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of illegal financing of his 2012 campaign, a sentence greater than the requisitions of the prosecution which had proposed one year, including six months suspended.
The court had requested that the sentence be directly adjusted, at home under electronic surveillance.
"
I simply ask that the law be applied for me as for any other litigant
", or "
this one has once again been flouted
", reacted the former head of state in a message on the networks. social.
“
I will go to the end in this quest which goes beyond my personal case because everyone can one day find themselves confronted with injustice
”, he had assured.
In its judgment, the court considered that the former tenant of the Élysée (2007-2012) had "
continued the organization of
electoral meetings", asking for "
one meeting per day
", even though he "
had been warned in writing
” of the risk of legal overrun, then of the actual overrun.
The former head of state "
knew the legal amount of the ceiling
" of authorized expenses.
"
He voluntarily failed to exercise any control over the expenses incurred
," said the court.
Campaign spending had totaled 42.8 million euros, almost double the legal ceiling at the time.
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During the campaign for his re-election in 2012, Nicolas Sarkozy was a "
casual candidate
", and let the expenses slip by without worrying about it, he who asked for "
American-style shows
", had supported the prosecution in his indictment .
An illegal arrangement between the then majority party, the UMP – which Nicolas Sarkozy later renamed Les Républicains (LR) – and the company that organizes Bygmalion meetings, would have covered up this lavish campaign.
Unlike his 13 co-defendants (former campaign and UMP executives as well as the company Bygmalion), Nicolas Sarkozy was not implicated for the double billing system devised to hide the explosion in authorized campaign spending. .
He was only tried for “
illegal campaign financing
”.