France Ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy Sentenced To One Year In Prison

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy  has been sentenced to one year in prison for illegal campaign funding. The Paris court ruled that the sentence would take the form of electronically monitored house arrest. The allegations go back to the 2012 presidential election campaign. "As a candidate, he failed to control costs," said the presiding judge in Paris. 

Sarkozy stayed away from the verdict. According to his lawyer Thierry Herzog, he wants to appeal and contest the decision. The public prosecutor has asked for a year in prison, including six months on probation. Sarkozy's lawyers pleaded for acquittal for the Conservative who ruled the Élysée Palace from 2007 to 2012. 13 other defendants were found guilty with him.

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Prosecutors argued that 66-year-old Sarkozy knew weeks before the 2012 election that campaign funding was approaching the cap. He ignored two warnings from his financial advisors.

In France, spending on the election campaign is capped in order to create more equality of opportunity between candidates. The upper limit allowed at that time was 22.5 million euros.

French presidential election 2012

The socialist Francois Hollande, who won the first round of French presidential election, and President Nicolas Sarkozy, who finished second, the winks Monday multiplied the right-wing voters, key in the second round on May 6. Hollande Sunday was 28.63% of the vote, Sarkozy a 27.18% and Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Front (FN), 17.9%, a record for this match. The abstention rate was 20.53%. In his first rally after the first round, Sarkozy showed Monday conciliatory to the voters of Marine Le Pen, saying that "we have heard. How we will respond with precise commitments." Returning to the attacks of Marine Le Pen against globalization, Sarkozy called the French "do not want borders that let all" or "want me to remove their lifestyle." "We want a Europe that protects us, not a Europe that crush us," he added. Hollande, the favorite for the second round according to polls, and gained the support of radical leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon (11.1%) and the environmentalist Eva Joly (2.31%). Surveys carried out on Sunday night show that about two thirds of Le Pen voters are willing to vote for Sarkozy, who need a "transfer (of votes) of 80%," according to analyst Pascal Perrineau.