France’s highest court has upheld an appeal court decision which had found former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling while he was the country’s head of state.

Sarkozy, 69, faces a year in prison, but is expected to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet — as is the case for any sentence of two years or less.

He was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling by both a Paris court in 2021 and an appeals court in 2023 for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.

“The convictions and sentences are therefore final,” a Court of Cassation statement on Wednesday said.

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Sarkozy, who was France’s president from 2007 to 2012, retired from public life in 2017 though still plays an influential role in French conservative politics. He was among the guests who attended the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month.

Sarkozy, in a statement posted on X, said “I will assume my responsibilities and face all the consequences.”

He added: “I have no intention of complaining. But I am not prepared to accept the profound injustice done to me.”

Sarkozy said he will seek to bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights, and hopes those proceedings will result in “France being condemned.”

He reiterated his “full innocence.”

“My determination is total in this case as in all others,” he concluded.

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, said his client “will comply” with the ruling. This means the former president will have to wear an electronic bracelet, Spinosi said.

It is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted and sentenced to a prison term for actions during his term.

Sarkozy’s predecessor, Jacques Chirac, was found guilty in 2011 of misuse of public money during his time as Paris mayor and was given a two-year suspended prison sentence.

Sarkozy has been involved in several other legal cases. He has denied any wrongdoing.

He faces another trial next month in Paris over accusations he took millions of dollars from then-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to illegally finance his successful 2007 campaign.

The corruption case that led to Wednesday’s ruling focused on phone conversations that took place in February 2014.

At the time, investigative judges had launched an inquiry into the financing of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. During the inquiry, they discovered that Sarkozy and his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, were communicating via secret mobile phones registered to the alias “Paul Bismuth.”

Wiretapped conversations on those phones led prosecutors to suspect Sarkozy and Herzog of promising magistrate Gilbert Azibert a job in Monaco in exchange for leaking information about another legal case involving Sarkozy. Azibert never got the post and legal proceedings against Sarkozy have been dropped in the case he was seeking information about.

Prosecutors had concluded, however, that the proposal still constitutes corruption under French law, even if the promise wasn’t fulfilled. Sarkozy vigorously denied any malicious intention in his offer to help Azibert.

Azibert and Herzog have also been found guilty in the case.

With the development of new technologies, sexual abuse of children has seen a rise in Europe.

The EU is therefore looking to update its directive on combatting the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, which dates back to 2011.

However, the EU Commission’s initial proposal has been watered down by the justice ministers of several EU countries. Seven Member States, which include Belgium, Finland and Ireland, expressed their regret at the removal of certain parts of the proposal.

“We deeply regret that the majority of Member States were unable to support a more ambitious approach aimed at ensuring that children who have reached the age of sexual consent receive the strongest and most comprehensive legal protection possible against unwanted sexual acts,” they wrote in a press release.

Key issues remained unaddressed

Isaline Wittorski, EU regional coordinator at child rights organisation ECPAT International, is particularly concerned regarding Member States’ opposition to the extension of the limitation period for pursuing child sexual abuse cases.

She also regrets that “grooming” – the process by which an adult intentionally approaches minors and manipulates them for sexual purposes – for children who have reached the age of sexual consent was not addressed by the Council.

“The Member States expressly refused to recognise in the text that a child in a state of shock or intoxication cannot be considered to have consented to sexual abuse”, she adds.

Harmonisation of penalties

The Commission’s proposal aims to harmonise the definition of sexual violence against minors and penalties within the EU.

It will also update criminal law in order to criminalise the rape of children broadcast live on the internet, as well as the possession and exchange of paedophile manuals and child abuse deepfakes.

MEPs, for their part, should support a more ambitious directive. Birgit Sippel, a German MEP (S&D), is calling for longer limitation periods.

“Many children who have been abused take years or even decades before they dare to go to court or to a police station. So this is a very important step that is missing from the current directive,” the MEP told Euronews.

“Unfortunately, what I see is that the Council is watering down almost everything that could improve the current directive. It will therefore be very important for the EU Parliament to maintain a very strong position and force the Council to go further and not limit itself to the current directive,” she added.

The proposal’s text can still be amended. After a vote by MEPs, negotiations will take place between the EU Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament.

It is estimated that one in five children in Europe is a victim of some form of sexual violence.

In 2022 alone, there were 1.5 million reports of child sexual abuse in the EU.

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Ministers also failed to reach agreement on another regulatory text aimed at combatting the sexual abuse of children online, which aims to force platforms to detect and remove content depicting sexual violence against minors. This proposal caused a clash between children’s rights defenders and privacy protection lobbies.

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