Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France, lost the first court of appeal against the trial on corruption charges.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy lost his first appeal against him for corruption on 8 October. Now Sarkozy has to wait for a second appeal before finding out whether his case will be sent to court, SBS reports.
The former President is accused of abuse of power and corruption during his election campaign in 2007. Investigators believe that Sarkozy, who before the 2007 presidential election held the post of head of the French interior Ministry, tried to obtain confidential information from the ex-attorney General at the court of Cassation Gilbert Aziber. The documents allegedly tried to Sarkozy – Aziber working notes for “the case of Betankur” confiscated during the investigation. According to investigators, Sarkozy in exchange for the data they promised to help Azieru in appointment to a prestigious post in Monaco.
Sarkozy was defeated in the 2012 election by socialist Francois Hollande. Since then, he has faced a number of allegations of corruption, fraud, favouritism and irregularities in campaign financing.
According to French law, a suspect is not formally charged with a crime if his case is not sent to trial. For those charges that are brought against Sarkozy, in France can be followed by measures in the form of five years in prison and a fine of 500 thousand euros.
Sarkozy lost presidential immunity from prosecution a month after he left office.
