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Sarkozy jailing reignites debate over French political justice ahead of Le Pen appeal
Reuters.com ^ | September 27, 20257:55 AM CDT | Gabriel Stargardter and Juliette Jabkhiro

Posted on 09/27/2025 3:22:24 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Summary

PARIS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - Former President Nicolas Sarkozy's prison sentence has deepened divisions in France over judges' handling of political wrongdoing, months before far-right chief Marine Le Pen attempts to overturn an embezzlement conviction and run for top office.

A Paris court jolted the political sphere on Thursday when it handed Sarkozy a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy over attempts to raise campaign funds from Libya. He will soon become the country's first post-war president to be imprisoned.

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Ludovic Friat, the president of the USM, the largest union representing French prosecutors and judges, said the ruling demonstrated that no one was above the law - even if some might choose to question the court's motivation.

"There will clearly be a before and after this decision," he said. "In high-profile political-financial trials, some inevitably see judges stepping onto the political stage. What I regret is that ... too often, this becomes a smokescreen that diverts attention from the offences actually committed."

JUDGES CRACKING DOWN ON POLITICAL WRONGDOING

As Sarkozy left court, he reiterated his innocence, and said the ruling would undermine faith in France's judiciary.

"What happened today ... is of extreme gravity in regard to the rule of law, and for the trust one can have in the justice system," he said.

Sarkozy's prison sentence is enforceable immediately, with the former president given a short time to put his affairs in order, but not allowed to avoid prison pending an appeal as some French politicians have done in...

(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: bananarepublic; ifucantbeatemjailem
If you can't beat 'em, jail 'em.
1 posted on 09/27/2025 3:22:24 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

This will continue until we start throwing lefties in jail.


2 posted on 09/27/2025 3:26:05 PM PDT by jroehl (And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

The article never describes exactly what they were alleged to have done.


3 posted on 09/27/2025 3:29:00 PM PDT by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Judges' union says no one is above law

Except judges.

4 posted on 09/27/2025 3:36:03 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Je suis Charlie Kirk.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

I don’t know about this particular case. But there are approximately 300,000 federal laws in the United States. I would assume that number is roughly the same in France and in the UK.

So if they want you, I’m sure they’ll find something to fit.


5 posted on 09/27/2025 3:36:41 PM PDT by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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To: Leaning Right
I don’t know about this particular case. But there are approximately 300,000 federal laws in the United States. I would assume that number is roughly the same in France and in the UK. So if they want you, I’m sure they’ll find something to fit.

How Congress made you a federal criminal

6 posted on 09/27/2025 3:42:24 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Je suis Charlie Kirk.)
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To: jroehl
(And how we burned in the camps later - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - The Gulag Archipelago)

Your tag line bears repeating as a post. In my twenties I read Solzhenitsyn's books. I believed them, they were true. I never believed it could be repeated in the USA, Western Europe, and South America, I was wrong.

Solzhenitsyn was a SAGE.

7 posted on 09/27/2025 3:45:30 PM PDT by cpdiii (cane cutter, deckhand, oilfield roughneck, drilling fluid tech, geologist, pilot, pharmacist, MAGA)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

From that link:

“The problem is so serious that prominent attorney Harvey Silverglate estimated that every American unknowingly commits three felonies a day.”

And now a related story:

Many years ago a friend and I went to a talk given by an NRA lawyer. The lawyer said there are thousands of federal and state gun laws - so many that there are certainly people in the audience who have accidentally committed at least one firearm felony.

My very honest friend scoffed at that. “Not me,” he said.

Then the lawyer went over some of those laws.

“I’m a felon,” said my friend.


8 posted on 09/27/2025 3:52:35 PM PDT by Leaning Right (It's morning in America. Again.)
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To: Williams

a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy over attempts to raise campaign funds from Libya.


9 posted on 09/27/2025 4:01:01 PM PDT by axxmann (If McCain is conservative then I'm a freakin' anarchist.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Re: "A Paris court jolted the political sphere on Thursday when it handed Sarkozy a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy over attempts to raise campaign funds from Libya."

That is the total explanation.

How? When? With whom?

Nothing is explained.

10 posted on 09/27/2025 4:09:56 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: zeestephen
The Political Left - in every country - is pathologically dishonest.
11 posted on 09/27/2025 4:24:06 PM PDT by zeestephen (Trump Landslide? Kamala lost the election by 230,000 votes, in WI, MI, and PA.)
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To: cpdiii

Same here. I place him at or near the top of the 20th century as sages go.


12 posted on 09/27/2025 4:46:53 PM PDT by xp38
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Alfred Dreyfus could have told you all about French “justice”.


13 posted on 09/27/2025 5:10:45 PM PDT by Locomotive Breath
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To: cpdiii

The leftists run around screaming “Hitler Hitler Hitler” or “Nazi Nazi Nazi” to cover up for the fact that they’re advocating for Stalin who was a far bigger monster than Hitler could have dreamed of being. In “Gulag” Solzhenitsyn makes that clear.


14 posted on 09/27/2025 5:13:25 PM PDT by Locomotive Breath
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

If you can’t beat em ban em, jail bam em jail em, if you can’t jail em kill em. Butler Pa


15 posted on 09/27/2025 7:05:16 PM PDT by iamgalt
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To: zeestephen
No doubt our guys learned it all from them; The prosecutors and FBI cannot release any information due to it being an ongoing investigation. Nobody can be held responsible because it's illegal to fire an FBI agent, or really any law enforcer. No legislator who authored the law can be held responsible because legislators by definition are not responsible because they were elected by the people. And obviously, the people cannot sue the government because no one can sue themselves.

It's a perfect system. And we brought it all on ourselves. The only possible resolution that ever existed was a king, a dictator, or socialism. And voiding our constitution.

16 posted on 09/27/2025 7:46:09 PM PDT by WhoisAlanGreenspan? (GO Tigers)
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