France's top court upholds corruption conviction of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy

euronews (in English)

The French former president, who will have to wear an electronic tag at home for a year, plans to appeal the ruling at the European Court for Human Rights.

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00:00France's highest court on Wednesday upheld an appeal court decision that found former

00:04President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while in office.

00:10The 69-year-old former politician now faces a year in prison but is set to request that

00:14he is instead be detained at home with an electronic bracelet as it is the case for

00:19any sentence of two years or less.

00:22He was found guilty by both a Paris court in 2021 and an appeals court in 2023 for trying

00:28to bribe a judge and of peddling influence in exchange for confidential information about

00:33a probe into his 2007 campaign finances.

00:36He obviously hoped that the Court of Cassation would follow the solution of the European

00:41Court of Human Rights.

00:42That was not the case.

00:43He is therefore forced to take a new action, to look for a higher guarantee of the rights

00:49to which he claims.

00:52Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012 and retired from public life in 2017 but still

00:57plays an influential role in French conservative politics.

00:59It is the first time in the country's modern history that a former president has been convicted

01:04and sentenced to prison for actions taken during his term.

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