Nicolas Sarkozy’s protection pleads for acquittal on attraction because of lack of “intentional element” | EUROtoday

Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer pleaded Friday 1^er December his acquittal on the attraction trial on the extreme spending of his presidential marketing campaign misplaced in 2012, reaffirming that the previous head of state had not “no knowledge” budgetary slippages.

While the general public prosecutor requested the day earlier than a yr of suspended imprisonment in opposition to the previous president, who had been sentenced in first occasion to at least one yr of imprisonment, his lawyer Vincent Desry opened the ball of the pleadings which should be ‘end subsequent Thursday. The choice of the courtroom of attraction will then be reserved.

“Mr Sarkozy was never aware of an excess” of the authorized ceiling for electoral bills, it “never incurred any expenses”affirmed his counsel by opening two hours of sober pleading, contrasting with the extra animated protection of his shopper throughout his interrogation on Friday November 24.

Mr. Desry thought-about that the judgment of the legal courtroom in September 2021 was “wrong” And “ill-founded in law and in fact”.

Sentence required much less extreme than at first occasion

In this file referred to as Bygmalion, named after the corporate which organized the marketing campaign conferences of the right-wing candidate, ten individuals, together with Nicolas Sarkozy, have been retried since November 8 by the Paris Court of Appeal. Unlike his co-defendants, the previous head of state will not be accused of the system of false invoices designed to cover the explosion in his marketing campaign’s bills which reached almost 43 million euros on the time. that the authorized ceiling was 22.5 million euros.

But, in its judgment, the courtroom emphasised that the previous tenant of the Elysée had “continued organizing meetings” electoral, “requesting one meeting per day”despite the fact that he “had been warned in writing” the danger of authorized overrun, then the precise overrun. “There was nothing fatal about this spending slope”estimated Thursday in his requisitions the Advocate General Bruno Revel, for whom it resulted “of the choice imposed by the candidate”.

With his colleague Serge Roques, nonetheless, he requested for a much less extreme sentence for Nicolas Sarkozy than that to which he has already been sentenced, one yr of suspended imprisonment, explaining that the accused didn’t see himself “not blame for being at the origin of the system put in place” to cover slippages or“to have been informed”.

No “intentional” or “material” factor

“I was only able to see a receding accusation”noticed Mr. Desry on Friday, judging that he had been ” impossible “ to the general public prosecutor’s workplace “demonstrate the intentional element” And “the material element” of the alleged offense. According to him, if Nicolas Sarkozy “was not informed of the fraud, he could not have been informed of the excess”.

During his interrogation, the ex-president “explained that every campaign will crescendo”recalled the lawyer, contesting the concept of ​​a “runaway” from that of 2012. The argument put ahead by “summer of meetings”which ought to have alerted the candidate about his bills, is a “construction a posteriori”disregarded Mr. Desry, arguing that on the time the press was reporting occasions at “your most sober” than 5 years earlier, in the course of the 2007 marketing campaign.

The lawyer additionally returned to the warning notes written by accountants in the course of the marketing campaign. When his shopper was knowledgeable of the primary, initially of March 2012, which talked about a threat of exceeding the ceiling, “he is simultaneously informed of the implementation of fixes”stated Mr. Desry. “Savings measures have been taken, varied and numerous”For “at least 3 million euros”.

A second notice, written after the primary spherical, signifies that “the ceiling is not reached”, he continued. Finally, a 3rd, presenting the marketing campaign account, dated June 28 and signed by Nicolas Sarkozy, signifies that it “is in balance” And “does not report any risk of rejection”.

“My shopper has typically been described as an omnipresidentremarked the lawyer, This doesn’t make him omniscient. »