PARIS: A French court on Thursday handed former president Nicolas Sarkozy a one-year prison sentence for illegal financing of his 2012 re-election bid, dealing a fresh blow to the right-winger seven months after he received a jail term for corruption.
Sarkozy, 66, will not serve time behind bars under the terms of Thursday’s verdict, with the court ruling that he could serve it at home by wearing an electronic bracelet.
He was not in court to hear the judge impose the maximum sentence for illegal campaign financing after finding that Sarkozy had “voluntarily neglected to exercise oversight over the spending incurred.” Sarkozy’s lawyer Thierry Herzog said his client would appeal the conviction.
Sarkozy spent nearly twice the legal limit of 22.5 million euros ($26 million) on his failed bid for a second term in office.
The case is one of several arising from a string of investigations into Sarkozy’s affairs, which have largely failed to dent his popularity among conservative voters.
In March, he became France’s first postwar president to be sentenced to jail relating to his attempts to secure favours from a judge in return for the promise of a plum retirement job.
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