Nicolas
Sarkozy is set to stand criminal trial for running a corrupt campaign to become
president of France. It comes after Paris prosecutors placed the 61-year-old
conservative under formal investigation for illegal financing, and recommended
he should appear as a defendant in court.
Despite the
ongoing enquiry, the leader of the Republic Party was convinced he could still
become head of state again next year.
Now,
however, Mr Sarkozy is expected to reconsider his options after being indicted
for ‘financing an illegal campaign’, which could end up with a prison sentence.
Alleged false accounting, fraud and breach of trust are all elements in the
so-called Bygmalion Affair.
Bygmalion
was the PR firm which handled the notoriously self-promoting Mr Sarkozy’s
appearances during his failed 2012 re-election campaign. It is said to have
used a vast system of false accounting to conceal an alleged explosion of
funding for his campaign.
It exceeded
the legal limit for funds of £18.5million pounds, with Mr Sarkozy’s team
spending the equivalent of at least £33million pounds.
Mr Sarkozy’s
lawyer Thierry Herzog said earlier this year that ‘there was nothing linking
President Nicolas Sarkozy to the Bygmalion case.’
However, the
investigation kept Mr Sarkozy, who is still allowed to use his ‘president’
title after serving a single term of office in the role between 2007 and 2012,
tied up in legal proceedings.
The Paris
home Mr Sarkozy shares with his third wife, the model and pop singer Carla
Bruni, was raided by fraud squad officers within a week of him standing down
four years ago.
This was
because French presidents are immune from prosecution while in office, and they
can only be indicted once they leave office. Following the prosecutor’s
recommendation that Sarkozy should stand trial, investigating magistrates have
one month to make the final decision on whether the case should come to court.
The ruling
could come just days before presidential primaries of Mr Sarkozy’s Republicans
party - held on November 20 and 27.Mr Sarkozy’s only other hope of avoiding a
trial in the short term is to win the presidential election next Spring.
He is under
investigation in a range of other scandals too, including claims that he
received £42million from the late Colonel Gaddafi before he was elected in
2007.
French law
bans candidates from receiving cash donations above £6,300, but the massive
donation is said to have been laundered through bank accounts in Panama and
Switzerland.
A document
made public in Paris is said to show that the French leader and the former
Libyan dictator made an illegal financial deal that propelled Mr Sarkozy to
power.
French
warplanes facilitated Gaddafi’s death during the Arab Spring revolt of 2011,
and it has been alleged that Mr Sarkozy wanted him gone, along with all the evidence
pointing to the donation.
The last French president to be tried as a criminal was Mr Sarkozy’s former mentor, Jacques Chirac.
In 2011, the former president was found guilty of diverting public funds and abusing public confidence, and recieved a two-year suspended prison sentence.
Despite his ongoing electoral ambitions, Mr Sarkozy is an increasingly unpopular figure in France, with opinion polls continually suggesting he should quit politics.
He has lurched increasingly to the right during his period of opposition as he tried to appeal to supporters of the anti-immigrant National Front.
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