Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, recently released from jail after serving 20 days of a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy, has lost his final bid to overturn a separate conviction for overspending during his failed 2012 re-election campaign.
The ruling by France’s top court confirms Sarkozy’s guilty verdict, closing his last avenue of appeal. He was first convicted four years ago of ignoring accountants’ warnings and knowingly exceeding campaign spending limits in an effort to sway voters. That verdict was upheld after an appeal last year, and he was sentenced to one year in jail, with six months suspended.
Sarkozy already lost a final challenge last December in a jobs-for-favours scandal, a ruling that led him to wear an electronic bracelet this year. But it is a third case, over alleged campaign funding linked to the late Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s regime, that led to his brief incarceration and drew headlines worldwide.
The former president was released earlier this month from his three-week “nightmare,” after a court ruled there were alternative ways to protect evidence and witnesses or prevent collusion among defendants as Sarkozy appeals.
Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing in all three cases. His appeal in the Libyan funding case is due to take place between mid-March and early June.
Weeks before that trial, the Paris court of appeals will hear Marine Le Pen’s attempt to overturn her own conviction and an associated election ban that could block her from running in the next presidential race. The far-right leader was found guilty in March of misusing EU funds, which she denies.
Wednesday’s case, known in France as the Bygmalion affair, centres on a communications company hired to organise Sarkozy’s rallies. The trial focused on how his relentless 2012 campaigning drove costs to about €43 million ($49.8 million) – roughly twice the legal limit.
Sarkozy’s lawyers, Patrice Spinosi and Emmanuel Piwnica, said they were considering filing a case in the European Court of Human Rights, over the way the French judiciary handled the case.
They added that authorities in France are due to decide in the coming weeks how Sarkozy will serve his sentence, adding that judges had previously indicated that his incarceration was not required.
