FRENCH ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was convicted Thursday and sentenced to a year of house arrest for illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 reelection bid, will appeal the ruling, his lawyer said.
The court said Sarkozy would be allowed to serve the one-year sentence at home by wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, noted that the sentence corresponds to the maximum his client faced. He said he had spoken with Sarkozy, who had asked him to appeal.
“The verdict won’t be enforceable” pending appeal, he added.
Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, had vigorously denied wrongdoing during the trial in May and June.
Sarkozy wasn’t present at the Paris court for the ruling. He is accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount of 22.5 million euros ($27.5 million) on the reelection bid that he lost to Socialist Francois Hollande.
The court stated
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