Nicolas Sarkozy's Illegal Campaign Financing Conviction Upheld

France's highest court has upheld a sentence against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the illegal financing of his 2012 re-election campaign.

Sarkozy, now 70, was found guilty of overspending on his campaign and subsequently hiring a PR firm named Bygmalion to conceal these expenditures.

In 2024, he received a one-year sentence, of which six months are suspended, allowing him to serve his sentence with an electronic tag instead of in prison.

Throughout the proceedings, Sarkozy has consistently denied all allegations against him. Prosecutors claim that his UMP party nearly doubled the legal cap of €22.5 million (£19.4 million) for campaign spending, indulging in extravagant rallies and events. To mask these excess costs, the UMP shifted invoices from the campaign to Bygmalion.

This recent ruling marks Sarkozy's second definitive conviction. In December, the High Court of Appeal upheld a separate conviction for corruption, resulting in six months of electronic monitoring. Just last month, he received a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy, serving 20 days in jail before being released in early November.

Moving forward, an appeal trial is set for next year, but until then, Sarkozy faces stringent judicial supervision and is barred from leaving France.

In a poignant reflection following his release, Sarkozy announced he is writing a book chronicling his brief incarceration, titled 'A Prisoner's Diary'. One excerpt shared on social media conveys his struggles with confinement: 'In prison, there is nothing to see, and nothing to do. I forget the silence that does not exist at La Santé [prison], where there is much to listen to. Here, the noise is, unfortunately, constant. But - like in the desert - inner life strengthens in jail.'