Nicolas Sarkozy’s former aide Claude Guéant has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence and barred from public office for five years for awarding himself envelopes of cash from police funds.
The verdict throws another spotlight on the probity of officials and politicians during Sarkozy’s time in the highest offices of state. Sarkozy, who heads the rightwing opposition party Les Républicains, hopes to win back the presidency in 2017 and is preparing for a primary race next year. Several legal inquiries into his time in office and into senior figures around him persist. He denies any wrongdoing.
The verdict against Guéant relates to the period between 2002 and 2004 when Sarkozy was interior minister and Guéant was his chief of staff. Guéant, now 70, was found guilty of taking money from special cash funds intended for police investigations and using it to award bonuses to himself and staff.
In total, €210,000 (then about £140,000) was passed to him over two years. Guéant received €10,000 a month, taking half for himself and sharing the rest with three members of staff who were also convicted.
Guéant later rose to become interior minister from 2011 to 2012, in charge of France’s policing and security.
The judges found Guéant was the instigator of the scheme and that his actions contravened “republican values”. The court said he had obtained the funds with the sole aim of “personal enrichment”.
Guéant was fined €75,000. Michel Gaudin, a former national director general of the police, was given a 10-month suspended sentence for his part, and three other members of Sarkozy’s team were given short suspended jail terms and fined.
The team viewed the money as a top-up of their salaries, the trial in Paris heard. Guéant told the court he did not consider his actions illegal. Guéant and Gaudin will appeal against their convictions.
Guéant is under formal investigation for tax evasion and forgery in a case linked to allegations that Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya financed Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential election campaign. He denies any wrongdoing.
