France’s highest court has upheld the conviction against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over illegal financing of his 2012 re-election campaign.
He was found guilty of overspending on his campaign, then hiring a PR firm called Bygmalion to cover it up.
Sarkozy, 70, was given a one-year sentence in 2024, with six months suspended, meaning he could be sentenced by wearing an electronic tag rather than jail.
He has always denied all the allegations.
Prosecutors in the case said Sarkozy’s UMP party spent almost twice the €22.5m (£19.4m) limit on his campaign, spending on lavish campaign rallies and events.
To hide the costs, the UMP asked Bygmalion to invoice the party rather than the campaign.
Today marks the second confirmed sentence for the former president, who was in power from 2007 to 2012.
Last December the High Court of Appeal upheld the corruption conviction and Sarkozy had to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for six months.
Then, in September, he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and sentenced to five years in prison.
He spent 20 days in jail before being released in early November.
The appeal will be heard next year. Until then, Sarkozy will remain under strict judicial surveillance and will be barred from leaving France.
A few days after his release, Sarkozy’s team announced that the former president was writing a book about his three weeks in prison, titled “Diary of a Prisoner”.
An excerpt from the book was published on social media: “In prison there is nothing to see, and nothing to do. I have forgotten the silence that does not exist in La Sante (prison), where there is so much to hear. Here, the noise is, unfortunately, constant. But – like the desert – the inner life is stronger in prison.”
<a href