A second entry on the former president's criminal record, before facing the Libyan trial on appeal: the Court of Cassation on Wednesday made Nicolas Sarkozy's conviction in the Bygmalion affair final by rejecting his appeal.

Overshadowed by the incarceration of the former head of state in the Parisian prison of La Santé in connection with the Libyan trial, this appeal to the Court of Cassation was his last recourse under French law in this emblematic case.

In the Bygmalion case, Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on February 14, 2024 by the Paris Court of Appeal to one year imprisonment, including six months of mandatory imprisonment, for the illegal financing of his lost 2012 presidential campaign.

His sentence on appeal, for which the court had ordered adjustments to the custodial portion (electronic bracelet, semi-liberty, etc.), was slightly less than the one-year custodial sentence handed down in the first instance in 2021.

The Court of Cassation having rejected the grounds raised by his appeal, "the candidate, the director of his campaign and the two directors of the political party that supported the candidate are therefore definitively convicted", indicates in a statement the highest judicial body in France, which judges the respect of the law and not the substance of the cases.

Nicolas Sarkozy will therefore be summoned in the coming weeks by the judge responsible for the enforcement of sentences to carry out his sentence.

In this case, the investigations revealed that, in order to mask the explosion of his campaign spending - nearly 43 million euros for a maximum authorized amount of 22.5 million - a double billing system had been put in place, attributing a large part of the cost of the meetings to the UMP (which became LR), under the cover of fictitious agreements.

Unlike his co-defendants, the former head of state was not accused of this system of false invoices but as a beneficiary, as a candidate, of illegal political financing.

- Electronic bracelet -

In both the initial trial and the appeal, Nicolas Sarkozy had "vigorously contested any criminal responsibility", denouncing "fables" and "lies".

Three of the ten convicted on appeal in the Bygmalion trial had joined the appeal: the campaign manager, Guillaume Lambert, and the former UMP executives Eric Cesari and Pierre Chassat.

In December 2024, the Court of Cassation had already made final the conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy to one year of imprisonment under electronic bracelet for corruption and influence peddling in the wiretapping case, also known as Bismuth.

The former president, now 70 years old, wore an ankle monitor between February and May, before being granted early parole, partly due to his age.

This second final conviction further complicates the legal prospects of Nicolas Sarkozy, who is preparing for the appeal trial in the Libyan case scheduled from March 16 to June 3.

On September 25, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced him to five years in prison for knowingly allowing his associates to approach Libya under dictator Muammar Gaddafi to solicit covert funding for his victorious 2007 presidential campaign.

To determine his sentence, the Paris court had taken into account the wiretapping case, criticizing Mr. Sarkozy in its judgment for having "relativized this conviction" by "minimizing the seriousness of the facts", but had on the other hand dismissed the Bygmalion conviction because of its then non-final nature.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who proclaims his innocence, was imprisoned for three weeks at La Santé, an unprecedented detention for a former president in the history of the French Republic and one that sparked heated debates.

The Paris Court of Appeal released him under judicial supervision on November 10. The former president will recount this prison experience in a book, "The Diary of a Prisoner," which will be published exactly one month after his release from prison.