Overview

• General François Lecointre signed the June 5 decree removing Sarkozy from both the Légion d’honneur and the Ordre national du Mérite, with publication in the Journal officiel on June 15.
• The exclusion follows his December 2024 conviction for attempting to corrupt a magistrate in the ‘écoutes’ affair, a verdict upheld by the Cour de cassation.
• Sarkozy and his co-defendants Gilbert Azibert and Thierry Herzog received three-year prison terms each, including one year of firm imprisonment.
• He becomes the second French head of state after Marshal Pétain to lose the Légion d’honneur under automatic disciplinary code provisions.
• The former president remains under judicial scrutiny for alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign, with a judgment expected in September.