PARIS – Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ruled out running again for office next year, a day after a court found him guilty of corruption and influence peddling and sentenced him to a year in prison.
He appealed the decision. In an interview Tuesday with French newspaper Le Figaro, Sarkozy denounced Monday’s verdict as “a deep injustice.” “I cannot accept to be convicted for something I didn’t do,” he said.
The 66-year-old Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.
The Paris court found that Sarkozy and his two codefendants sealed in 2014 a “pact of corruption,” based on “consistent and serious evidence."