On the 7th local time, former French President Sarkozy continued to be tried in the Paris Misdemeanor Court on charges of “active corruption” and “transaction of influence”, which was the first time that Sarkozy had made a voice since the trial began on November 23.
The trial lasted nearly four hours that day. Sarkozy insisted that he had done nothing corruptly and hoped to clear the shame through the trial.
Sarkozy was charged with allegedly illegally accepting funding from L’Oreal Group’s late successor Liliana Bedangu in the 2007 presidential election.
Later, he was accused of promising a prosecutor named Gilbert Azibert to seek a position in Monaco in exchange for inside information from the French Supreme Court related to the case and exert influence on the investigation.
It is reported that the evidence in the above case mainly comes from the prosecution’s interception of Sarkozy’s phone calls with his lawyer Elzog. The interception occurred between 2013 and 2014, when investigators found that Sarkozy used the pseudonym “Paul Bistus” and involved prosecutor Archibert in his conversation with his lawyer.
In fact, the purpose of the prosecution’s interception at that time was to investigate Sarkozy’s suspected acceptance of political contributions from the Libyan government.
It is reported that the trial will end on the evening of December 10. If convicted, Sarkozy will face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of 1 million euros.
