justice of France Declared former President on Thursday (30) Nicolas Sarkozy Convicted of illegal campaign funding for exceeding the authorized spending limit in the 2012 presidential election. The fine has not yet been issued.
The prosecutor’s office sentenced the former president to one year in prison, including six months in a closed regime, and a fine. €42.8 million was spent on the 2012 election (about R$270 million at the current rate), almost double the legal limit.
This is Sarkozy’s second conviction March was sentenced to prison for influencing corruption. He did not appear in the trial.
The 66-year-old politician, who ruled the country between 2007 and 2012 and was defeated by socialist François Hollande, is the first former president of the Fifth Republic (a regime that began in 1958) to be convicted.
Another 13 people were also convicted. “I want you to tell me what more I did in the campaign in 2012 than in 2007,” Sarkozy said.
The conservative former president is a defendant in other lawsuits, including the 2007 election, in which he has been accused of passive corruption and criminal association, among other crimes, in the campaign that took him to Elisha’s palace.
The prosecutor’s office also investigates him for influence pedaling and money laundering for his consulting activities in Russia.
