Investigation into former French President Nicolas Sarkozy not driven by "hatred" - prosecutor
Kyiv • UNN
France's chief financial crimes prosecutor, Jean-François Bohnert, denied that the investigation into former President Nicolas Sarkozy was motivated by hatred. Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy to finance his election campaign from Libya.
The French prosecutor who led the case against former President Nicolas Sarkozy regarding the financing of his election campaign from Libya denied that the investigation was motivated by hatred, UNN reports with reference to The Guardian.
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In a rare public comment, Jean-François Bonheur, France's chief financial crimes prosecutor, told RTL radio on Monday: "We have no hatred to express... Our compass is the law, it is the rule of law."
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Last week, Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison after a court found him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to obtain campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. After the verdict, he said that the "hatred" against him "certainly has no limits."
Sarkozy, who denied wrongdoing and filed an appeal, will be informed next month when his prison sentence begins.
Judge Nathalie Gavarino issued a special type of sentence, which means that 70-year-old Sarkozy will have to start serving his prison sentence even if he appeals. She justified this step by saying that the crimes were "exceptionally serious" and "likely undermined public trust."
Since the verdict last week, Gavarino, the presiding judge in the three-month trial of Sarkozy and 11 others, has received death threats and messages threatening "serious violence." The Paris prosecutor's office has launched two investigations into the threats of violence against her.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a social media post over the weekend that attacks or death threats against magistrates are "unacceptable." He said: "The rule of law is the foundation of our democracy... The independence of the judiciary, its impartiality, and the protection of the magistrates who uphold it are its fundamental pillars."
Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of Justice in the former government, wrote over the weekend: "Intimidation and death threats against judges are absolutely unacceptable in a democracy."
Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy but acquitted on three separate charges of corruption, misuse of Libyan state funds, and illegal campaign financing. The prosecutor told the court that Sarkozy had made a "Faustian pact of corruption with one of the most terrible dictators of the last 30 years" to obtain election funding from Gaddafi for his successful presidential campaign in 2007.
Sarkozy, 70, who was France's right-wing president from 2007 to 2012, said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche on Sunday that the verdict and sentence against him had "crossed... all the boundaries of the rule of law."
Sarkozy, who is expected to go to prison on a date set by the prosecutor in the coming weeks, was seen watching a Paris Saint-Germain football match at the Parc des Princes stadium on Saturday. He also filmed a video of his wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni, singing The Beatles' song Let It Be in his support.