PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty on Wednesday by a Paris appeals court of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid, confirming a previous ruling by a lower court.
He was sentenced to one-year year prison sentence, half of which suspended, that can be served through alternative means like wearing an electronic bracelet without going to jail.
Sarkozy had been handed a one-year prison sentence in 2021 when first found guilty, though that was suspended while he launched his appeal.
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, remained an influential figure among conservatives and is on friendly terms with President Emmanuel Macron — despite a string of trials and investigations linked to various legal issues surrounding his campaign finances.
He has always denied accusations that his party Les Republicains, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm named Bygmalion to hide the true cost of his campaign — marked by lavish show events previously unseen in French politics.
During a hearing, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team: “I didn’t choose any supplier, I didn’t sign any quotation, any invoice,” he told the court.
France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors allege that the firm invoiced UMP rather than the campaign. They say Sarkozy spent 42.8 million euros on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount.
France’s Sarkozy found guilty of illegal campaign financing, appeals court confirms
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France’s Sarkozy found guilty of illegal campaign financing, appeals court confirms
- He was sentenced to one-year year prison sentence, half of which suspended, that can be served through alternative means
- During a hearing, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team
Sri Lanka hospital releases 22 rescued Iranian sailors
- Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka discharged from hospital 22 Iranian sailors who were plucked from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said Sunday.
The sailors were treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.
“Another 10 are still undergoing treatment,” a medical officer at the hospital told AFP.
He said the bodies of 84 Iranians retrieved from the Indian Ocean were also at the hospital.
Those discharged from hospital overnight had been taken to a beach resort in the same district.
Sri Lankan authorities said the survivors from the Dena were being handled according to international humanitarian law, and the government had contacted the International Committee of the Red Cross for assistance.
The island is also providing safe haven for another 219 Iranian sailors from a second ship, the IRIS Bushehr, that was allowed to berth a day after the Dena was sunk.
Sailors from the Bushehr have been moved to a Sri Lanka Navy camp at Welisara, just north of the capital Colombo, and their ship taken over by Sri Lanka’s navy.
Sri Lanka announced it was taking the Bushehr to the north-eastern port of Trincomalee, but an engine failure and other technical and administrative issues had delayed the movement, a navy spokesman said.
Sri Lanka has denied claims that it was under pressure from Washington not to allow the Iranians to return home, and said Colombo will be guided solely by international law and its own domestic legislation.
A US State Department spokesperson said the disposition of the Bushehr crew and Iranian sailors rescued at sea was up to Sri Lanka.
“The United States, of course, respects and recognizes Sri Lanka’s sovereignty in the handling of this situation,” the spokesperson told AFP in Washington.
India, meanwhile, said Saturday that it had allowed a third Iranian warship, the IRIS Lavan, to dock in one of its ports on “humane” grounds after it too reported engine problems.
The three ships were part of a multi-national fleet review held by India before the war in the Middle East started last week.
“I think it was the humane thing to do, and I think we were guided by that principle,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Saturday.
The Lavan docked in the south-west Indian port of Kochi on Wednesday.
“A lot of the people on board were young cadets. They have disembarked and are in a nearby facility,” Jaishankar said.
