Problems seem to be continuing or Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy who on Wednesday went on trial over claims that his failed 2012 re-election bid was financed illicitly.
Just two weeks ago, on March 1, Sarkozy bagged a three-year term, out of which two years were suspended, for corruption and influence peddling.
The case is one of several facing the former French President since he left office making him the Country’s first post-war president to be sentenced to prison.
Sarkozy of course has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the charges are trumped up and that he was a victim of a saying he is the victim of a spiteful judicial system between 2007 and 2012.
Sarkozy who was absent on the opening of his latest trial in Paris on Wednesday has been accused of spending up to 20 million euros in order to finance his failed re-election bid in 2012.
According to Prosecutors, say accountants had alerted him that his campaign about to exceed the 22.5 million euro spending limit between rounds of voting, but Sarkozy insisted on holding more events.
The former president says he was unaware of the fraud and has appealed the verdict, effectively crushing any hopes of another presidential comeback.
The trial is set to run until April 15 and If convicted, Sarkozy risks being sentenced to up to a year in prison and a fine of 3,750 euros.
On March 1, he was found guilty of forming a “corruption pact” with his lawyer to convince a judge to share information about yet another investigation into the politician’s affairs, relating to his winning 2007 campaign.
This sentence is not expected to see him serve actual jail time with two of the three years suspended by the court and the remaining year set to be served at home with an electronic bracelet.
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