# Former French President found guilty of corruption **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 1, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035 "2021-03-01T13:29:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035/1 "2021-03-01T13:29:57Z")
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](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56237818) story here. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2021, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035/2 "2021-03-01T22:30:32Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2021, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035/3 "2021-03-02T00:28:53Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035/4 "2025-09-26T01:40:58Z")
He has more troubles: > Prosecutors had told the court that Sarkozy and his aides devised a “corruption pact” with [Gaddafi](https://www.theguardian.com/world/muammar-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](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/oct/22/libya-liberation-declaration-gaddafi-death). 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](https://www.theguardian.com/uk/lockerbie) in Scotland in December 1988. > **[Sarkozy says he will ‘sleep in jail but with head held high’ after conviction](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/nicolas-sarkozy-found-guilty-of-criminal-conspiracy-in-libya-trial)** > > Former French president receives five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy over pact with Gaddafi regime ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2025, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/former-french-president-found-guilty-of-corruption/934035/5 "2025-10-21T20:18:58Z")
_Sleeping in jail with one’s head held high_ sounds like cruel and unusual use of a metaphor. What was Sarkozy’s actual statement?