Paris court upholds conviction of French ex-President Sarkozy in illegal campaign funding

PARIS (AP) — A Paris appeals court upheld a guilty verdict against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 re-election bid. The Court of Appeal sentenced Sarkozy to a year in prison on Wednesday, suspending six months. Sarkozy was convicted in a lower court in September 2021 and was sentenced to a year of house arrest. Sarkozy’s lawyer, Vincent Desry, said after the ruling Wednesday that the former president is “completely innocent of charges against him” and will appeal to the Court of Cassation. Sarkozy was France’s president from 2007 to 2012. He was accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he had lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.