Sarkozy Reacts After Five-Year Conviction: ‘I Will Sleep in Prison with My Head Held High’

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday for conspiracy in the illegal financing of his 2007 election campaign in Libya, with funds from dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime. Following the conviction, Sarkozy reacted by stating that he would sleep in prison ‘with his head held high’ and vowed to fight until his ‘last breath to prove his complete innocence.’ Within a month, he will be summoned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office to inform him of the date of his arrest.

Facing the cameras after the trial, he said what happened in court ‘is extremely serious for the Rule of Law’ and for ‘the trust we can have in the justice system.’ Sarkozy emphasized that he was acquitted of three out of the four charges:
‘I was convicted for allegedly allowing two of my colleagues to come up with the idea of illegally financing my campaign. I will take responsibility. I will comply with the court summons, and if they really want me to sleep in prison, I will do so. But with my head held high. I am innocent,’ he said, adding that he will appeal the sentence. ‘I will fight until my last breath to prove my complete innocence.’

Sarkozy, who denies all allegations, attended the reading of the verdict in Paris alongside his wife, model and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and their three children. The Prosecution had requested seven years in prison, considering him the true person responsible for a pact with the then Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
The new conviction adds to two previous ones, for corruption, influence peddling, and illegal campaign financing in 2012. One of them led Sarkozy to lose France’s highest distinction, the Legion of Honour.
The court decided that the prison sentence would be imposed even if Sarkozy appealed — a harsh sentence that few expected and has no precedent in modern French history for a former president. Another 11 people were also prosecuted. Among the convicted individuals are Sarkozy’s former right-hand man, Claude Guéant, and former minister Brice Hortefeux. The case is based on statements from seven former Libyan dignitaries, trips taken by Guéant and Hortefeux to the country, money transfers, and the notebooks of former Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem, found dead in the Danube River in Vienna in 2012.

Prosecutors told the court that Sarkozy and his aides set up a ‘corruption pact’ with Gaddafi and the Libyan regime in 2005 to illegally finance Sarkozy’s successful presidential campaign two years later.
According to the investigation, in exchange for financial support for his 2007 campaign, Sarkozy would have offered Gaddafi assistance to restore his international image, following accusations of Libya’s involvement in airplane attacks in Scotland and Niger. At the time, in exchange for the money, the Libyan regime sought diplomatic, legal, and commercial favors. Gaddafi, whose 41-year government was marked by human rights abuses, had been internationally isolated due to his regime’s connection to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988.
(With AFP and The New York Times)