The 67-year-old appealed against a conviction from March last year.
The sentence at the time was three years in prison, two of which were suspended. At the beginning of the appeals court, Sarkozy protested his innocence. ‘Where’s the proof? There’s no evidence. I’m defending my pride here.” The conservative politician was head of state between 2007 and 2012.
Specifically, it concerns the fact that in 2014 Sarkozy would have tried through his loyal lawyer Thierry Herzog to obtain investigative secrets from lawyer Gilbert Azibert in another affair in which he was involved. The Public Prosecution Service argued that he endangered the independence of the judiciary. Herzog and Azibert were also convicted in the first instance and are now on trial again. The process will last until December 16.
The allegations are based on tapped telephone conversations between the politician and his lawyer. There was disagreement about the legality of this wiretapping operation. Investigators discovered that Sarkozy and Herzog used mobile phones, which the ex-president had bought under a pseudonym, for confidential conversations. On Monday, Sarkozy was outraged that lawyer-client communications were confidential and that the wiretapping was illegal. In total, 3,500 of his calls were tapped.
(SDA)