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Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012 and remains
influential among conservatives, is accused of trying to bribe a
judge and of influence peddling in exchange for inside
information on an investigation into his presidential campaign
finances.
Prosecutors told the court the 66-year-old should be jailed for
four years and serve at least two. During his testimony, Sarkozy
said he was the victim of lies and denied ever committing an act
of corruption.
"Never. Never abused my influence, alleged or real," he told the
court in December. "What right do they have to drag me through
the mud like this for six years? Is there no rule of law?"
Prosecutors allege Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in
Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential
information about an inquiry into accusations that he had
accepted illegal payments from L'Oreal heiress Liliane
Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.
This came to light, they say, while they were wiretapping
conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog
after Sarkozy left office, in relation to another investigation
into alleged Libyan financing of that 2007 campaign.
Azibert, at the time a magistrate at France's top appeals court
for criminal cases and well-informed on the Bettencourt inquiry,
did not get the job in Monaco.
Prosecutors are seeking the same punishment for Azibert and
Herzog, who are on trial alongside Sarkozy.
Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, is the only other
president under France's post-war Fifth Republic to have faced
trial after leaving office.
Chirac, who died in 2019, was found guilty in 2011 of presiding
over a system of ghost jobs in Paris City Hall for political
cronies when he was mayor of the capital. Handed a two-year
suspended sentence, Chirac escaped serving time in jail.
(Reporting by Richard Lough; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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