Barely two weeks after being convicted on charges of bribery, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to visit the court again, this time, in another trial over accusations of illegal campaign financing.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012 went on trial on Wednesday in the Bygmalion case relating to forgery and overspending during his failed 2012 presidential campaign. While he did not attend the hearing and he was represented by his lawyer, Thierry Herzog.
The former president is accused along with 14 others, including former officials of public relations agency Bygmalion and his political party, accountants, and campaign managers. They face charges of forgery, use of forgery, breach of trust, and complicity in illegal financing of Sarkozy’s election bid. The so-called Bygmalion affair, after the name of a communications agency involved in the case, regards fake invoices issued to keep Sarkozy’s campaign expenses under the legal threshold of 22.5 million euros. A verdict is expected in mid-April. Meanwhile, prosecutors claim Sarkozy exceeded the legal threshold for campaign expenses by 20 million euros (23.8 million dollars) during his re-election campaign.
Implication From Campaign Team
While Sarkozy has denied any wrongdoing, a former campaign deputy director, Jerome Lavrilleux, admitted in a TV interview in 2014 that the allegations were true. Lavrilleux in particular made headlines in 2014 after he tearfully confessed to the scam during a French TV interview, saying: “This campaign was a runaway train that no one had the courage to stop.”
At the beginning of the month, the former leader was already sentenced to three years in prison, two of them suspended, in a corruption case. This sentence is not expected to see him serve actual jail time with two of the three years suspended by the court and the remaining year set to be served at home with an electronic bracelet.
A verdict for the new case is expected in mid-April. If convicted, former President Sarkozy could be sentenced to a year in prison and a fine of €3,750 ($4,470).
