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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said that under no circumstances does he hope to receive a presidential pardon after being sentenced to five years in prison.
In an interview to be published on Sunday, he says his goal is to prove his "honesty."
The case of illegal financing of Sarkozy's presidential campaign by Muammar Gaddafi's Libya, which has shaken French politics and public opinion for years, ended on Thursday with a heavy ruling from the Paris Criminal Court.
The former president was found guilty of “criminal conspiracy” in the period 2005–2007 and sentenced to 5 years in prison, as well as a fine of 100,000 euros. He was stripped of his political rights for five years and banned from running in elections during the same period.
The court found him not guilty of several other serious charges, including embezzlement of Libyan public funds, passive bribery, and illegal campaign financing.
Asked by the Journal du Dimanche newspaper whether he expects an apology from President Emmanuel Macron, Sarkozy replied flatly: "No way."
“To receive forgiveness, you must accept the punishment and, consequently, your guilt. I will never accept guilt for something I did not do. I will fight until my last breath for my honesty to be recognized,” he declared, adding with determination: “ I will win.”
Presidential pardons only apply to final and enforceable court decisions, which is currently not the case, as Sarkozy has appealed the decision.
In the lengthy interview, Sarkozy also referred to a document published by the website Mediapart in 2012, which led to the opening of the investigation. It is a note in Arabic that spoke of an agreement to support his presidential campaign. According to the presiding judge, "the most likely scenario is that this document is forged."
"If there is forgery, it means there are forgers, people who manipulate, so a conspiracy," Sarkozy said. "In a normal world, the whole file should have been dropped. But the court did the opposite," he added.
Asked about the prison sentence without suspension, he expressed shock: " I expected everything, but not this. All the boundaries of the rule of law have been violated."
According to a source close to the case, Sarkozy has been summoned to appear in court on October 13, when a date for him to begin serving his sentence will be set. Another judicial source told the French news agency (AFP) that the former president (2007-2012) will be sent to prison “relatively soon” after this hearing.
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