Former French President Sarkozy loses final appeal in graft conviction

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) — France's highest appeals court on Wednesday upheld the corruption conviction of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, ordering him to wear an electronic tag for a year, local media reported.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the verdict against Sarkozy in the "Bismuth affair," ordering him to wear an electronic bracelet for the span of a year, a first for a president in the country, according to broadcaster BFMTV.

Sarkozy will not be able to appeal the decision again in France, though his lawyer said he plans to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.

He had been sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended.

The 70-year-old center-right politician was wiretapped in 2013 after suspicions that he illegally funded his election campaign from Libyan sources.

Investigators found that the former president was using two other phone lines registered under the name Paul Bismuth. Sarkozy only communicated with his lawyer Thierry Herzog via those two numbers.

Sarkozy, who led the country in 2007-2012, and his lawyer Thierry Herzog were accused of bribing Gilbert Azibert, a former judge in the Cassation Court in 2014 to obtain information about a judiciary investigation.

In exchange, Sarkozy promised the judge a prestigious job in Monaco.