Sarkozy gets electronic tag after graft ruling

PARIS: Nicolas Sarkozy was fitted with an electronic tag on Friday after being convicted of graft, prosecutors said, in a first for a former French president.

France´s highest appeals court in December ordered Sarkozy to wear the tag for a year, after finding him guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge.

Sarkozy, who turned 70 last week, was fitted with the ankle monitor at his home, the Paris prosecutor´s office said.

A judge summoned the ex-president on the day of his birthday and told him he would wear the monitor from February 7, a source close to the case said. The ankle bracelet was imposed as an alternative to spending one year in jail.

The right-wing politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, would only be allowed out of his home between 8.00 am and 8.00 pm, the prosecutor´s office said.

He would however be allowed an extra hour and a half in the evenings three days a week when he attends court as an accused in another case.

In hearings that started last month and run through to April 10, Sarkozy has been charged with accepting illegal campaign financing from Libya before his 2007 election.

Sarkozy´s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said he continued to contest the conviction for influence peddling and would lodge an application with the European Court of Human Rights this month, after exhausting all legal avenues in France.