France's highest court has upheld a sentence against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the illegal financing of his 2012 re-election campaign.
He was found guilty of overspending on his campaign, then hiring a PR firm named Bygmalion to cover it up.
Sarkozy, 70, was handed the one-year sentence in 2024 of which six months were suspended, meaning they could be served by wearing an electronic tag instead of going to jail.
He has always denied all allegations.
Prosecutors in the case said Sarkozy's UMP party spent nearly double the €22.5m (£19.4m) cap on his campaign, splurging on lavish campaign rallies and events.
To hide the costs, UMP then asked Bygmalion to invoice the party, rather than the campaign.
Today's ruling marks the second definitive conviction for the former president, who was in power from 2007 to 2012.
In December, the High Court of Appeal upheld a corruption conviction, which required Sarkozy to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for six months. In September, he faced a five-year jail sentence for criminal conspiracy, having served 20 days before being released earlier this month.
An appeal trial is scheduled for next year. Until then, Sarkozy will be subject to strict judicial supervision and barred from leaving France.
Recently, Sarkozy's team revealed that he is writing a book about his brief incarceration, titled A prisoner's diary. An excerpt shared on social media details his reflections on prison life, stating, In prison, there is nothing to see, and nothing to do. I forget the silence that does not exist at La Santé [prison], where there is much to listen to. Here, the noise is, unfortunately, constant. But - like in the desert - inner life strengthens in jail.
