The prospect of a trial clearer to Nicolas Sarkozy. The Supreme Court upheld Tuesday tapping between the former president and Thierry Herzog, and both could soon be referred to the criminal court. “This is a patient process that will continue now,” regretted M th Patrice Spinosi, counsel for Sarkozy, before the high court, arguing that such decision could lead condemnation of France to the European Court of human rights. But that judgment, relatively expected, especially risk to shower the hopes of return of former head of state.
Stratagem. Apart under investigation for “active corruption” and “influence peddling”, Sarkozy is suspected of having asked a senior judge of the Supreme Court through his lawyer to obtain confidential information about a legal case in progress . In exchange, he had promised the judge a prestigious position in Monaco.
For several weeks in early 2014, Sarkozy and Herzog developed their plan on a secret telephone line open for the occasion, the famous line ” Bismuth”. The court plays in evidence is overwhelming, as the summary report of the Central fight against financial and tax offenses, in charge of investigations. This is the faith of those plays that Nicolas Sarkozy was indicted on 1 st July 2014 “I am not a drug dealer, my criminal record and listen to me for months, “ had he rebelled that day, citing a desire to ” publicly humiliated “. a few days later, in an interview Le Figaro it will go to the judges compare methods to those of the Stasi.
Since Nicolas Sarkozy has repeatedly tried to expose listens “illegal”, contesting the form to better evacuate the background. In September 2014, facing the nascent controversy, the investigating chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal decided to abruptly suspend the judicial inquiry, the time to consider the various appeals and, above all, to rule on the legality listens. The beginning of a long legal battle media-to be attended with more or less objectively, some of the greatest tenors of the Paris Bar, on behalf of professional secrecy sacrosanct between a client and his lawyer.
But the investigating chamber has finally validated the essentials of the proceedings, arguing that the sheets were perfectly regular, in a judgment of 7 May 2015. Since then, Sarkozy’s lawyers had more choice but to take emergency the Court of Cassation, the highest court in the French judiciary. At the hearing, held on January 28 M th Spinosi is long taken these “plays in the long term, to drift net”. At issue: the initial tracks for the former president, ordered in a different folder, open a judicial investigation against X relating to its 2007 campaign financing suspicions by Libyan dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi. Now in this procedure called “strain”, Sarkozy’s lawyers believe that none “index” to support his wiretapping, deeming the measure “disproportionate”.
on this point, however, the investigating chamber of the Paris court of appeal was clear: “the prerequisite for participation indices offense n ‘ is not provided by law. “ clearly, to put someone tapped, it is sufficient that the penalty be greater than two years, which is the case in the Libyan procedure. The judge is only required to submit investigative acts, including plays, the criteria of “necessity” and “proportionality”. The criteria on which the Court of Cassation did not rule. “The need is the sole discretion of the judge,” had already recalled the investigating chamber in its judgment of 7 May
War Another point raised by the defense of the former president. eavesdropping between Sarkozy and his lawyer should have been covered by professional secrecy, and never transcribed in the court file. Here again, the Supreme Court agreed with the investigators, repeating the arguments of the investigating chamber. On this point, moreover, the code of criminal procedure is perfectly clear: a lawyer may well be placed on listening if suspected of participating in an offense, which is the case of M th Herzog, the court considered that his words “under the evidence of its participation in acts likely to criminal ‘ the only condition in this case. inform the barrister of wiretap the lawyer, as has been done.
Two plays were however canceled by the court, their contents not to characterize the offense. But these cancellations do not change the folder background. Judges Patricia Simon and Claire Thépaut that notified the completion of their investigations early February, the national financial Procuratorate now less than two months to make his submissions. But the Sarkozy camp has already filed four applications for nullity. The beginning of a new procedural war, while the primary right for the Presidential be held in late November.
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