by Admin
Dec 18, 2024
History was made in France when former president Nicolas Sarkozy was ordered by the French highest appeal court to wear an ankle monitor for a year after the former president lost his appeal against his graft corruption charges.
Nicolas Sarkozy became the first France head of state to be ordered by the court to wear an ankle monitor after the appeal court ruled against his denial of the corruption and influence peddling charges.
The former president had been accused of trying to influence the judge through bribery apart from being accused of collecting funds from Muhammad Gadaffi’s Libya government in 2007 to sponsor his presidential campaign and election.
Patrice Spinosi, the attorney to the former President disclosed that he and his client would respect the judgment of the court and the terms and conditions of the conviction but would take the case to the European Court of Human Rights in weeks to come.
Spinosi in his statement to the press 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”.
In 2021, the former president and his former attorney Thierry Harzog were found guilty by a lower court of colluding with Judge Gilbert Azibert to obtain and share information about a legal investigation. Sarkozy was sentenced to three years but had two suspended while he was directed to spend one year in house detention while wearing an ankle monitor.
Nicholas Sarkozy, 69, who is a right-wing political leader served as the president of France from 2007-2011 and has denied every allegation charged against him while his lawyer keeps reiterating that they will keep fighting and not give up.