Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy gets 1-yr house arrest for financing campaign illegally

Paris, September 30

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted and sentenced to a year of house arrest on Thursday for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid. The court will allow him to serve the sentence at home by wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.

Sarkozy, France’s President from 2007 to 2012, had vigorously denied wrongdoing during the trial in May and June. He decided to appeal the sentence, a move that in effect suspends it, and the judge said he could serve the sentence at home with an electronic tag Sarkozy wasn’t present at the Paris court for the ruling. He was accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande. The court stated that Sarkozy “knew” the legal limit was at stake and “voluntarily” failed to supervise additional expenses. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing. He said he was not involved in the logistics of his campaign for a second term as president or in how money was spent during the election run-up. — AP

The case

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was accused of spending almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande in 2012.