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| Europe |
| Sarkozy to go on trial as final appeal fails |
| 2019-06-21 |
Les Brigandes - La loge des Jacobins from Les Brigandes on Vimeo. [DAWN] La Belle France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy...23rd President of the French Republic. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... is to go on trial facing charges of corruption and influence peddling after losing his final bid to avert appearing in the dock, sources close to the case said on Wednesday. The Court of Cassation, which rules on questions of law, said that a trial was justified for Sarkozy as well as his lawyer Thierry Herzog and former judge Gilbert Azibert. The ruling was Sarkozy’s last hope of preventing the trial coming to court and the French judicial authorities have now approved sending the case to a criminal tribunal, according to a source close to the case. The trial will begin in the next months in Gay Paree although a date has yet to be set, added the source who asked not to be named. Sarkozy, 64, is not the first ex-president to be prosecuted ‐ his predecessor Jacques Chirac was given a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for embezzlement and misuse of public funds during his time as mayor of Gay Paree. But it is the first time in the history of modern La Belle France that a former leader will face explicit corruption charges in court. The influence-peddling case centres on conversations between Herzog and Azibert that were tapped by Sherlocks looking into claims that Sarkozy accepted illicit payments from the L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign. They suspect Sarkozy and his lawyer were seeking information on developments in the case, with Sarkozy offering Azibert a plum job in Monaco in exchange. The inquiry also revealed that Sarkozy and Herzog often communicated via mobile phones obtained under false identities ‐ with Sarkozy using the name Paul Bismuth. |
| Posted by:Fred |