How Africa
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will face a trial for bribery and trading in influence, reports our CNN colleagues.
Nicolas Sarkozy is accused of trying to obtain in 2014, through his lawyer Thierry Herzog, secret information from Gilbert Azibert, at that time magistrate at the Court of Cassation.
This information, relayed by Le Monde and Mediapart, indicate that Sarkozy’s lawyer has offered to help the prosecutor Gilbert Azibert to obtain a prestigious position in Monaco, in exchange for this secret information.
At the root of the case, the former president’s phone tapping was prompted in an investigation, that on the charges of Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign, which led to a charge last week.
In an interview with BFM, an affiliate of CNN, Sarkozy’s lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, condemned the decision to prosecute Sarkozy. She asserts that the eavesdropping was not sufficient to open the proceedings.
His lawyers said in a statement that he would “assert his rights” by seizing the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal.
The decision to send the case comes after Sarkozy, in a separate case, was put on official examination on March 20 under allegations of accepting money from Libyans for his 2007 presidential campaign.
In this case, Mr. Sarkozy says there is no evidence to support such an accusation.
“I am accused without any physical evidence,” said Sarkozy in an article published Thursday in the French newspaper, Le Figaro.
