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He should not be in jail now.

His case is going to appeal but the court decided to still jail him now "provisionally" (exécution provisoire), which sounds like a political play. Coincidentally, the same is happening to Le Pen with respect to the decision to ban her from elections...

As for "delaying" the case, this is just the French court system for you. Everything takes years and years.



Why would he have a treatment of favor? Almost every person convicted in his situation has a an execution provisoire, there's no special treatment here. Same for lepen.

Let's put things straight, both of them are criminals, giving them a treatment of favor would be insane.

And to show how morally corrupted they are, both of them have been really loud about a no tolerance justice system. I guess that speaks for itself.


My understanding with Le Pen is that she used funds that were earmarked for he EU parliament staff to pay the salary of someone on her regular staff. I find it hard to believe that similar errors weren’t made by people the French establishment simply like more than her. Calling her a morally corrupt criminal for that is pretty obviously political, and if its political, it should be decided by a vote (which she would win)


> I find it hard to believe that similar errors

When you pay your father a cook and a bodyguard this way, this isn't really appropriate to call that “an error”.

> the French establishment simply like more than her

Bayrou (who was prime minister a month ago) is also charged with similar things.

And Le Pen is pretty liked by the French establishment actually …


She didn't simply used EU money to pay her party staff, she was the head of a stealing EU money system while also saying that EU costs to much to France. Not only is she a morally corrupt criminal but also a corrupter. It was not a mistake she made, she was not alone and all convicted members of her party were fully aware they were committing a massive fraud.

Saying that is was an error and the trial was political, is plain disinformation.


> He should not be in jail now.

He should definitely be in jail, as some of the things he's been charged with, and also in other cases sentenced for, were conspiracies to rig his trials and attempts to lean on witnesses, in cases including, but not limited to, this very trial [1]. Him being behind bars is necessary to stop his attempts to rig his own trial.

[1]: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affaire_Sarkozy-Kadhafi


It is not political play. This is FUD spread by his political supporters.

The "exécution provisoire" is a measure that was introduced when his own party was in power, to make sure that terrorists were jailed immediately. He happened to be condemned for breaching the same law (association de malfaiteurs) that is used against terrorists.

I once read a comment by a lawyer that he was amazed by the number of politicians who ended up being caught by laws they had voted for. This is what happened here.

In fact when he was president he implemented another law, on minimum mandatory sanctions for repeated offenders (peines plancher) which was repelled by the subsequent administration. He would have been caught by that too otherwise.


Exactly, and he he is also judged in a separate case to have heavily leaned on a witness, and in another separate case for bribing a judge.

At one point when you're this corrupt, putting you away is the only solution.


Political aspects of the justice system are never acknowledged for obvious reasons but it does not mean they don't exist.

I cannot be sure of what is happening (hence "seems") but neither can you, especially regarding decisions that are discretionary.

At least here there is a guilty verdict even if not final. In France people can be jailed for years without a trial...


> Political aspects of the justice system are never acknowledged for obvious reasons but it does not mean they don't exist.

Sure, but also, he did the crime. There can not really be any doubt for the people who followed the trial, and the judges have shown extreme caution, rejecting charges when there was the slightest doubt.

The political opinion or lack thereof of judges is irrelevant.


I think speeding up trials and the judiciary in general would be a great benefit for many western democracies.


Speeding is a big word here. It's been 13years already. But I agree with you. And actually Sarkozy was the most pushing politic to support this, not just when it's about him.


I think we can clear the backlog real quick if we use LLM-As-A-Judge =)


> His case is going to appeal but the court decided to still jail him now "provisionally" (exécution provisoire), which sounds like a political play.

No. That’s how it’s done, and he can thank himself because he introduced the process himself. It’s utterly disgusting to hear him bloviating about criminals in 2007 and now whining because he’s on the receiving end. Shameless.

The law is the law. He’s been convicted enough and he belongs in jail.


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Over 85% of people sentenced with 2 years or more await their appeal in jail, at least initially.

I personally agree with you that shouldn’t be the case, but given Sarkozy made his entire political career about being tough on crime and harsher mandatory sentencing, I’d be appalled if he received any sort of special treatment.


Thank you so much for that number. It's a relevant fact, and while many people posted their opinions, you alone mentioned that fact.


The court was motivated by the exceptional gravity of his crimes, as is allowed by French law

In the absence of any element pointing to the partiality of the judges, one cannot assume this was politically motivated


As for "delaying" the case, this is just the French court system for you. Everything takes years and years.

Is there a country for which that doesn't hold true?


In Russia some cases can be over surprisingly quickly ;)




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