Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy at a Paris courthouse, on September 25, 2025. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
France's top appeals court on Wednesday, November 26, rules in a case of alleged illegal campaign financing against former president Nicolas Sarkozy – his last chance to escape adding a second definitive conviction to his growing rap sheet.
The Court of Cassation in Paris will rule on whether a lower court was right to convict him of illegal financing in his failed 2012 re-election campaign. If it upholds Sarkozy's conviction, he will serve a six-month term, possibly with an electronic bracelet.
Sarkozy, a one-term president from 2007-2012, has faced a series of legal challenges since leaving office. Wednesday's hearing is his last chance to escape a second conviction after he was sent to jail last month in a separate case, related to an earlier election campaign.
In that trial, the 70-year-old was found guilty of allowing aides to seek to collect money for his 2007 presidential run from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. His 20 days behind bars made him the first post-war French leader to serve jail time before he was released on November 10 under judicial supervision pending an appeal in that case as well.
