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The 2020 trial in France for the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy dealt with allegations that he bribed a judge with a retirement package in return for information on an investigation into alleged campaign finance violations due to payments he is said to have received from heiress Liliane Bettencourt. The trial opened on 24 November 2020. [1] Prosecutors have asked for a four-year jail sentence (of which two would be suspended) for Sarkozy, the implicated judge (Gilbert Azibert) as well as Sarkozy's lawyer, Thierry Herzog. [2] [3] On 4 December 2020, Ziad Takieddine, a Lebanese businessman who allegedly helped finance Sarkozy's 2007 campaign with help from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, was detained in Lebanon, [4] but was allowed a condition prison[ clarification needed ] a few days later after agreeing to abide by a travel ban. [5] The defendants deny the accusations. [6] The trial concluded on 10 December; the verdict was rendered on 1 March 2021. [7] Sarkozy, Azibert and Herzog were found guilty and sentenced to three years in jail for corruption. [8] [9] Two years of this sentence are suspended, and one to be served in prison. [9] Sarkozy has appealed, which suspends the ruling. [10] [11]
On 20 May 2021, a new criminal trial related to illegal campaign funding began for Sarkozy, as well as 13 other defendants who were said to have been involved in the Bygmalion scandal. [12] [13] Sarkozy's second corruption trial involved allegations of diverting tens of millions of euros which was intended to be spent on his failed 2012 re-election campaign and then hiring a PR firm to cover it up. [14] [12] Rather than spend this illicit money on his re-election campaign, Sarkozy instead overspent it on lavish campaign rallies and events. [12] [14] On 30 September 2021, Sarkozy, as well as his co-defendants, was convicted at the conclusion of this corruption trial as well. [15] [14] For this conviction, he was given a one year prison sentence, though he was also given the option to instead serve this sentence at home with an electronic bracelet. [14] [15]
Elías Antonio "Tony" Saca González is a Salvadoran politician who was President of El Salvador from 1 June 2004 to 1 June 2009. He is currently serving a minimum 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges.
Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is a French politician who served as the president of France and co-prince of Andorra from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information and spending beyond legal campaign funding limits during his 2012 re-election campaign.
Influence peddling, also called traffic of influence or trading in influence, is the practice of using one's influence in government or connections with authorities to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment. Influence peddling per se is not necessarily illegal, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has often used the modified term "undue influence peddling" to refer to illegal acts of lobbying; however, influence peddling is typically associated with corruption and may therefore delegitimise democratic politics with the general public. It is punishable as a crime in Argentina, Belgium, Bulgaria, Brazil, France, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
The HIV trial in Libya concerns the trials, appeals and eventual release of six foreign medical workers charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV in 1998, causing an epidemic at El-Fatih Children's Hospital in Benghazi, Libya. About 56 of the infected children had died by August 2007. The total number of victims rose to 131 in 2022.
François Charles Armand Fillon is a French retired politician who served as Prime Minister of France from 2007 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. He was the nominee of The Republicans, the country's largest centre-right political party, for the 2017 presidential election in which he ranked third in the first round of voting.
The Mitterrand–Pasqua affair, also known informally as Angolagate, was an international political scandal over the secret sale and shipment of arms from Central Europe to the government of Angola by the Government of France in the 1990s. The scandal has been tied to several prominent figures in French politics.
Claude Guéant is a French civil servant. The former chief of staff to Nicolas Sarkozy, he served as Minister of the Interior from 27 February 2011 until 15 May 2012. He is a member of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement (UMP).
Otto Fernando Pérez Molina is a Guatemalan politician and retired general who served as the 48th president of Guatemala from 2012 to 2015. Standing as the Patriotic Party candidate, he lost the 2007 presidential election but prevailed in the 2011 presidential election. During the 1990s, before entering politics, he served as Director of Military Intelligence, Presidential Chief of Staff under President Ramiro de León Carpio, and as the chief representative of the military for the Guatemalan Peace Accords. On being elected President, he called for the legalization of drugs.
Lamine Diack was a Senegalese businessman, sports administrator, and athlete. He was president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 1999 to 2015. He was the subject of numerous investigations into corruption during his tenure as president. He was also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 1999 to 2013, then an honorary member from 2014 to 2015, and the chairman of the National Water Company "Société Nationale des Eaux" of Senegal (SONES) from 1995 to 2001. He had been under house arrest since November 2015, and his trial in France started in June 2020. On 16 September 2020, Diack, his son Papa Massata Diack, the head of the IAAF anti-doping department Gabriel Dolle, and other persons were given prison sentences for their part in a coverup of doping in Russia.
Emmanuelle Mignon served as cabinet director for French president Nicolas Sarkozy between May 2007 and July 2008.
The Bettencourt affair involves allegations of illegal payments made by billionaire heiress Liliane Bettencourt to François-Marie Banier and members of the French government associated with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010.
Corruption in France describes the prevention and occurrence of corruption in France.
Ziad Takieddine is a Lebanese-French businessman, described by The Telegraph as an "arms broker".
The 2016 South Korean political scandal, often called Park Geun-hye–Choi Soon-sil Gate in South Korea, was a scandal that emerged around October 2016 in relation to the unusual access that Choi Soon-sil, the daughter of shaman-esque cult leader Choi Tae-min, had to President Park Geun-hye of South Korea.
Libya allegedly bankrolled the presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy with up to €50 million in pay-outs. Sarkozy has denied wrongdoing and rejected suggestions he was a Libyan agent of influence during his tenure as president of France. He has since officially been convicted of corruption in 2021.
Saïd Bouteflika is an Algerian politician and academic. He is the brother and was a special adviser of Abdelaziz Bouteflika in his former role as President of Algeria, on whom he would have had "considerable influence", especially after the president suffered a serious stroke in 2013. He was also an assistant professor at the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene (USTHB).
Gilbert Azibert is a former French magistrate who was on the Court of Cassation.
Thierry Herzog is a French lawyer. He is the former lawyer of Nicolas Sarkozy, who was the President of France from 2007 to 2012.