Overview

• The Paris criminal court convicted Nicolas Sarkozy of association de malfaiteurs in the 2007 Libyan financing case and ordered a five-year term with exécution provisoire and a deferred committal warrant.
• In a JDD interview, Sarkozy denied wrongdoing, ruled out seeking a presidential pardon, condemned the ruling as a violation of the rule of law, and argued the Mediapart document was likely a fake, presenting this as evidence of a plot.
• Two investigations were opened over threatening messages targeting the presiding judge, as the Syndicat de la magistrature criticized President Emmanuel Macron’s silence while the CSM and Gérald Darmanin denounced the threats.
• François Bayrou questioned the growing use of exécution provisoire, warning it strips appeals of real effect, a concern echoed by Marine Le Pen after her own sentence with the same measure.
• Dominique de Villepin called attacks on judicial independence dangerous for democracy, and analysts suggested the RN could gain politically from the backlash against the judiciary.