Nicolas Sarkozy will be tried again from November 28 to December 14.
The appeal trial of the former President of the Republic, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and the former senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert, in the so-called "wiretapping" case, will be held at the end of the year, decided this the Paris Court of Appeal on Monday.
Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced at first instance, on March 1, 2021, to three years in prison, including one firm, for corruption and influence peddling, an unprecedented decision for a former head of state. The former president, who has always claimed to have never committed "the slightest act of corruption", immediately announced that he was going to appeal, as did Thierry Herzog and Gilbert Azibert, sentenced to the same sentence, accompanied by a five-year disqualification for the lawyer.
In this case born in 2014 of telephone interceptions, also called the “Bismuth” case, the criminal court had estimated that a “corruption pact” had been concluded between Nicolas Sarkozy, his lawyer and the former high magistrate Gilbert Azibert.
The judges had considered that the ex-president had been guilty of corruption, by promising to support the candidacy of the ex-high magistrate for a prestigious post in Monaco in exchange for privileged information, even a influence on an appeal in cassation which he had lodged.
He must also be retried in the Bygmalion case.
During the trial at first instance, the defense protested against a case based on "fantasies" and "hypotheses" and pleaded in unison for release. She had argued that in fine, Nicolas Sarkozy had not won his case before the Court of Cassation and that Gilbert Azibert never obtained a post in Monaco – according to the law, however, it is not necessary that consideration has been obtained, nor that the influence is real, to characterize the offenses of corruption and influence peddling. Nicolas Sarkozy said he was the victim of a "deep injustice" and assured that he "(would) fight until the end so that the truth triumphs".
The former President of the Republic, retired from political life since 2016, must also be retried in the Bygmalion case after appealing his sentence in September to one year in prison for illegal financing of his lost presidential campaign in 2012 .
