Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Thursday to one year in prison for illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid. His sentence is to be adjusted to house arrest under electronic surveillance. The former president has already announced that he will appeal. He is the first French head of state in modern times to receive two jail terms.
It is unlikely that Sarkozy will serve his sentence behind bars: The judge said he could serve the sentence by wearing an electronic bracelet at home. All 13 co-defendants have been found guilty.
“Nicolas Sarkozy knew the spending limit,” the judge said. “He knew he shouldn’t exceed it.”
Speaking outside of the courtroom on Thursday, Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog told French media that he would be launching an appeal.
This is the second criminal case involving Sarkozy. In March he was handed a three-year prison sentence, two of which were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling. The 66-year-old has appealed the March conviction.
Sentences ranging from two years to three and a half years in prison, part of which were suspended, were handed down to his 13 co-defendants.
The former head of state, who was absent from the hearing, “continued to organize meetings” after being “warned in writing of the risk of exceeding” the legal limit, said the president of the 11th correctional chamber of the Paris court, Caroline Viguier.
