France’s highest court has upheld a guilty verdict in a corruption case against the former president
France’s highest court on Wednesday upheld former President Nicolas Sarkozy’s 2024 conviction for illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid.
Sarkozy, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, was earlier convicted in a separate case of plotting to obtain secret campaign funds from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election bid. He later championed the NATO-backed intervention that toppled Gaddafi and plunged the country into chaos.
The ruling upheld on Wednesday related to Sarkozy’s appeal of a 2024 decision that determined he had hid massive overspending in his failed 2012 reelection campaign – nearly double the legal financing cap of €22.5 million ($26 million).
The case became known as the Bygmalion affair after the events company that organized extravagant rallies for Sarkozy under the guise of party conventions in an attempt to circumvent the election financing cap.
The court decision also upheld Sarkozy’s one-year prison sentence, half of which is suspended, meaning it can be served at home with a monitoring device.
The Court of Cessation is the last line of appeal within the French judicial system, meaning that Sarkozy is now out of options to further contest the conviction.
