In an interview with conservative daily Le Figaro, Sarkozy said he spoke on the phone with the National Rally’s Marine Le Pen — who was sentenced earlier this year for allegedly having embezzled funds from the European Parliament — and his former prime minister, François Fillon, who has also been convicted for embezzling public funds.
Le Pen has appealed her sentencing and continues to say she is innocent. Fillon has exhausted all his appeals.
Sarkozy was definitively found guilty of corruption in a separate case after exhausting all appeals earlier this year, which led him to briefly being placed under house arrest. A French supreme court is also set to render a final verdict on Nov. 26 in a case related to campaign finance law violations allegedly committed during his second presidential run in 2012, in which he was previously found guilty by two lower courts. Sarkozy has repeatedly said he is innocent in both those cases as well.
In the Gadhafi trial, Sarkozy was cleared of corruption charges, as the court could not establish that the alleged deal between Sarkozy’s associates and Libya had continued once Sarkozy took office, presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino explained as she unveiled the verdict.
The court’s ruling indicated that it could neither establish nor rule out whether Libyan money had reached Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In his Le Figaro interview, Sarkozy said he would be bringing a copy of Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,” which tells the story of a man who escapes prison after being falsely accused of treason and locked up without trial, along with a biography of Jesus Christ.