Nov. 26 (UPI) — The highest court in France upheld a conviction Wednesday against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for allegedly padding his campaign coffers in his failed 2012 re-election bid in a separate legal issue.
It arrived weeks after Sarkozy, 70, was released early from jail in favor of house arrest in a different case.
France’s Court of Cessation sanctioned an appeal court verdict that gave Sarkozy a six-month house arrest sentence. In 2021, He was sentenced to a year in jail.
Sarkozy was France’s head of state from 2007-2012.
Last year in February, a French court determined that Sarkozy broke campaign finance laws by exceeding a hard cap on political spending by tens of millions during his 2012 campaign after investigators uncovered a double system to process and hide campaign costs.
But Sarkozy will now be placed either under a monitored device or partial house arrest.
In September, Sarkozy was declared guilty on criminal conspiracy charges in a separate case alleging Sarkozy sought out illegal financing channels for his 2007 election campaign via Libya’s late dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy was handed a five-year prison sentence, more than $115,000 in fines and a five-year ban from holding French political office.
The former French leader began his sentence but was released less than a month later on Nov. 10 following an appeal court decision he be granted judicial supervision.
Sarkozy revealed last week he will soon publish a book about his 20-day stint in jail.
“In prison, there is nothing to see and nothing to do,” he wrote on social media about his upcoming book. “Noise there is, alas, constant. But, like in the desert, inner life grows stronger in prison.”
