Former French President found guilt of corruption

Politics & Elections
1

Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to 3 years for bribery (2 years suspended and he can serve the other year under house arrest).

This follows from another former President Jacques Chirac who served a two year suspended sentence, also for corruption.

So, do the French have a higher than average level of corruption at the top tier of their politics, or is the French justice system just better at holding them to account? I don’t know the answer to that, but looking at the present and recent crop of politicians in the US and UK, I’m inclined to think the latter.

BBC breaking news story here.

2

Wait a minute - former French Presidents can be held accountable for their actions as President, even when they are no longer in office? Has anyone mentioned this to Senate Republicans?

3

Notice, Shoeless, that this is a regular judiciary case, not an impeachment. And:

He was convicted of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 - after he had left office - by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about a separate case.
(emphasis added-JRD)

So it was (politically influential) citizen Sarkozy, not President Sarkozy who did the crime and must do the time.

I suppose that in places like France (or Spain or Israel) being able to investigate and prosecute a former high official under regular due process of law is just not viewed as meaning “OMG if we allow this to happen EVERY NEW GOVERNMENT will be locking up their former opponents!!”. It must be tied in with a higher level of confidence that the prosecutors are not serving at the pleasure of the Government of the day so they don’t particularly care if they make a former President or PM look bad.

4

He has more troubles:

Prosecutors had told the court that Sarkozy and his aides devised a “corruption pact” with Gaddafi and the Libyan regime in 2005 to illegally fund Sarkozy’s successful presidential election campaign two years later.

The court heard that in return for the money, the Libyan regime requested diplomatic, legal and business favours, and it was understood that Sarkozy would rehabilitate Gaddafi’s international image. The autocratic Libyan leader, whose 41-year rule was marked by human rights abuses, had been isolated internationally over his regime’s connection to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988.