Nicolas Sarkozy, Photo: Agerpres/AP
A rare sanction for a former president: Nicolas Sarkozy was excluded from the Legion of Honor following his conviction, which became a definitive, one year of prison for corruption in the business interception business, according to a decree published on Sunday, reports AFP, according to News.ro
The former president (2007-2012), who was also excluded from the National Order of Merit, thus becomes the second French head of state who is devoid of this distinction, after Marshal Pétain, who was left without the Legion of Honor following his conviction in August 1945 for high treason and conspiracy with the enemy.
This extremely symbolic decision was expected since the conviction of Nicolas Sarkozy in the business interception business has become final by rejecting the appeal by the Court of Cassation in December.
In this case, the former head of state was found guilty that, in 2014, he tried to bribe a magistrate of the Court of Cassation, Gilbert Azibert, in the hope of obtaining confidential information and with the help of his lawyer Thierry Herzog.
All three were sentenced, in the first instance and in appeal, to the same three -year prison sentence, one of them without suspension.
Apart from the file of telephone interceptions, Nicolas Sarkozy is involved in several judicial files, including a appearance before the court at the beginning of 2025, being suspected of the Libyan financing of his presidential campaign in 2007. The sentence in this case will be pronounced at the end of September.
The exclusion from the Legion of Honor is automatic
With the rejection of his last appeal to France, Nicolas Sarkozy was subjected to the exclusion from the Legion of Honor, which is automatic when a beneficiary is definitively sentenced for an offense or receives a year or more imprisonment.
In these cases, the withdrawal is “of law”, as the great Chancellor of the Legion of Honor emphasized in March, General François Lecointre, who signed the decree by which Nicolas Sarkozy was deprived of the two titles including the Great Cross.
During the procedure, the former leader of the French right could take steps to the great Chancellery, according to a source close to the case.
“The great Chancellor of the Legion of Honor consulted eminent legal experts to ensure that the texts in force were correctly applied to this specific case,” said the great Chancellery.
Referring to Sarkozy's case in March, the great Chancellor of the Legion of Honor acknowledged that the “opprobrium” of the exclusion was “extremely painful” for those affected.
The former chief of staff of the French army, however, emphasized the importance of disciplinary sanctions in maintaining the “exemplary character” of the Order of the Legion of Honor.
“This is a major problem,” he said. “The subject of the discipline is all the more important as the exemplary character of the order also depends on the fact that the people who are decorated can be sanctioned.”
According to the order signed on June 5, Nicolas Sarkozy, Gilbert Azibert and Thierry Herzog, are also excluded from the Legion of Honor and the National Merit Order.
