A French court will decide on Monday whether former President Nicolas Sarkozy can avoid serving more jail time, after his lawyer tried to merge two sentences for convictions in separate cases.
The president who served from 2007 to 2012 has faced a series of legal problems since leaving office.
Last year, Sarkozy became the first president of modern France to go to prison, after serving 20 days in a case involving alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign. Sarkozy has filed an appeal.
Read moreThe diary of former president Sarkozy’s 20 days in prison: ‘Like the Count of Monte Cristo’?
The 71-year-old also received two final convictions in other cases.
In December 2024, he exhausted his last legal remedy in the case called “Bismuth” for trying to extract favors from a judge and served his sentence with an electronic anklet that was removed in May of last year after several months – allowed due to his age.
In November last year, he received his second final conviction in what is known as the “Bygmalion” case for illegally financing his failed 2012 re-election bid, with France’s highest court upholding a six-month sentence.
During a closed-door hearing at the end of February, the former head of state requested that his six-month prison sentence in the Bygmalion case be considered served by virtue of the electronic tag he wore last year in connection with the Bismuth case.
His lawyer, Vincent Desry, declined to comment after the hearing, but had previously told AFP that a request for a merger of sentences is “extremely routine.”
The request is only possible if several criteria are met, including that the sentences in separate proceedings are of the same nature and all appeals have been exhausted.
Sarkozy will appear in court again starting March 16 for the appeal in the case against him related to alleged Libyan financing of his previous election campaign.
The former president, who has denied the charges, was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit a crime.
Sarkozy is the first French leader to be imprisoned since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state, who was jailed after World War II.
He remains an influential figure on the right despite the legal problems that have dogged him since he left office.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
