Former French president Nicolas ­Sarkozy faces call for four years’ jail

Prosecutors in the corruption trial of French former president Nicolas ­Sarkozy have called for him to be jailed for four years.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has vowed to go ‘all the way’ to clear his name. Picture: AFP

rosecutors in the landmark corruption trial of French former president Nicolas ­Sarkozy have called for him to be sentenced to a prison term of four years of which he should serve two.

The 65-year-old former ­leader, the country’s first modern head of state to appear in the dock, is accused of trying to bribe a judge with a plum retirement job in exchange for inside information on an inquiry into his campaign finances.

Prosecutors asked for the same punishment for Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer and co-defendant, Thierry Herzog, as well as for the judge, Gilbert Azibert.

They also said Mr Herzog should also be disbarred for five years. “The facts would not have occurred if a former president, as well as a lawyer, had kept in mind the magnitude, the responsibility, and the duties of his office,” prosecutor Jean-Luc Blachon told the court.

He said the “devastating ­effects of this affair strikes at the values of the Republic”, adding that it had “damaged” the ­judicial institution, the legal profession and the image of the presidency.

Mr Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had told the court on Monday that he “never committed the slightest act of corruption” and vowed to go “all the way” to clear his name. The corruption and influence-peddling charges — among several legal cases against him — carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of €1m ($1.6m).

Defending himself in court for the first time this week, Mr Sarkozy said he relished the prospect of getting a fair hearing after being “dragged through the mud for six years”.

“What did I do to deserve this?”he said, vowing to “go all the way for the truth”.

Prosecutors say he and Mr Herzog tried to bribe Judge Azibert in return for information on an inquiry into claims Mr Sarkozy had received illicit payments from late L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt during his 2007 presidential campaign.

The state’s case is based on wiretaps of conversations ­between Mr Herzog and Mr Sarkozy, something the former president denounced during his address to the court.

One conversation “overwhelmingly” showed that Mr Sarkozy had promised to intervene to get Judge Azibert a posting in Monaco, prosecutor Celine Guillet said.

Mr Sarkozy’s lawyer Jacqueline Laffont lashed out at “the flaws, the inexistence and the emptiness” of the prosecutor’s accusations. Judge Azibert was a senior adviser at France’s highest ­appeals court at the time. He never got the job in Monaco.

AFP