Nicolas Sarkozy’s defense rejected the accusation …

Defense of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy denounced “void” in accusations of corruption and influence peddling against his client and demanded his acquittal at the trial in Paris. Lawyer Jacqueline Laffont sought to dismantle the charges that the prosecution had filed Tuesday to seek a two-year prison sentence against the former president and the rest of the defendants, plus two other exempted from compliance.

Sarkozy, who was seen on Wednesday accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni, has been tried by a Paris court since November 23. The former president is accused of having promised a promotion to Gilbert Azibert, then a magistrate of the Supreme Court, in 2014 in exchange for obtaining confidential information on another investigation in which he was involved, the so-called ” Bettencourt affair ”. Azibert is also accused, just like Sarkozy’s trusted lawyer, Thierry Herzog, whom the prosecution designates as an intermediary in the maneuver.

For Jacqueline Laffont, defender of the former French president, the prosecution is based on unproven hypotheses and the hearing has shown that no evidence points to the corruption pact that led his client to be part of the accused. “I’m afraid it was my client’s former responsibilities that generated this case”declared the lawyer, who denounced the “judicial abuses” which led Sarkozy to the court.

The lawyer recalled that it must be the prosecution who provides proof of the crime and not the defense which proves his innocence. Laffont assured that The case began with questionable wiretaps, as the defense considers that conversations between a lawyer and his client cannot have taken place. Beyond that, Laffont believes that no supporting evidence or testimony has been provided.

“I believe these talks cannot be doomed and I don’t think this tribunal will.”, he said. After Laffont’s argument, the session was suspended, before lawyers for the other two defendants spoke on Thursday and the case was tried. In France bribery and influence peddling charges carry a maximum penalty of ten years and a fine of one million euros (approximately $ 1.2 million).

This trial is unprecedented since Sarkozy is the first former president of France, since the creation of the Fifth Republic in 1958, while being physically seated on the platform. Before him, only Jacques Chirac, his predecessor and political mentor, was tried and sentenced for embezzlement of public funds committed when he was mayor of Paris. But due to health issues, he never appeared in court.

Sarkozy faces other cases in court, such as the one that will lead him to testify again next March for irregularities in the financing of his 2012 campaign. The files opened for the financing of his 2007 campaign with Libyan money are still under investigation.

The name of the former French president also appears in surveys on the compensation paid to the former minister and businessman Bernard Tapie, the commissioning of investigations without a public competition during his stay at the Elysee or sales of helicopters to Kazakhstan and arms to Pakistan.