Sarkozy must wear electronic tag after losing graft case appeal

PARIS: France´s highest appeals court ordered former president Nicolas Sarkozy to wear an electronic tag for a year on Wednesday -- a first for a former head of state -- after confirming his convictions for corruption and influence peddling.

It also barred him from public office for three years.

The verdict means he could face 12 months under house arrest, depending on what a judge later decides.

Sarkozy, 69, who had been found guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge, will “evidently” respect the sentence, his lawyer Patrice Spinosi told AFP.

But he will take the case to the European Court of Human Rights within weeks, Spinosi added. That will not, however, hold up on Wednesday´s sanction, Sarkozy having exhausted all the legal avenues in France. Spinosi said it was a “sad day” when “a former president is required to take action before European judges to have condemned a state over whose destiny he once presided.”

But Sarkozy himself said he was “not ready to accept the profound injustice that is being done to me”.

His appeal to the European court in Strasbourg “could, alas, lead to a condemnation of France”, he said. This could have been avoided, he added, “if I had benefitted from a level-headed legal analysis”.

In 2021, a lower court found that Sarkozy and his former lawyer, Thierry Herzog, had formed a “corruption pact” with judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about an investigating judge, in a case uncovered by wiretapping.