Nicolas Sarkozy’s illegal campaign financing conviction upheld

France’s top court has upheld the conviction of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for illegally financing his 2012 re-election campaign.

He was found guilty of overspending on his campaign and then hired a PR firm called Bygmalion to cover it up.

Sarkozy, 70, was sentenced to one year in prison in 2024, with six months suspended, meaning they can serve the sentence by wearing an electronic tag instead of going to jail.

He has always denied all accusations.

The prosecutor in charge of the case said that Sarkozy’s RMP spent almost twice the 22.5 million euros (19.4 million pounds) limit on its campaign, profligately on campaign rallies and events.

To hide the costs, the UMP then asked Bygmalion to invoice the party rather than the campaign.

Today is the second final conviction for the former president, who was in power from 2007 to 2012.

In December, the High Court of Appeal upheld a corruption conviction that required Sarkozy to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for six months.

Then, in September, he was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy.

He spent 20 days in jail before being released in early November.

An appeal trial will be held next year. Until then, Sarkozy will be subject to strict judicial supervision and will be prohibited from leaving France.

Days after his release, Sarkozy’s team announced that the former president was writing a book about his three weeks in prison, titled “A Prisoner’s Diary.”

An excerpt from the book was posted on social media: “In prison, there is nothing to see and nothing to do. I forgot about the silence that does not exist in La Santé (prison), where there is so much to listen to. Unfortunately, here, the noise persists. But, just like in the desert, the inner life is intensified in prison.”