An examining magistrate ordered the dismissal for trial of fourteen protagonists, including Nicolas Sarkozy, for his staggering expenses during the 2012 presidential campaign, in the Bygmalion affair, we learned on Tuesday. The ex-president will appeal his dismissal for trial, his lawyer Thierry Herzog immediately replied, stressing that only one of the two judges seized signed the order. "This obvious disagreement between these two magistrates, co-seized of the same information (judicial), an extremely rare fact to be underlined, illustrates the inanity of this decision“Says in a press release the lawyer of the former head of state.

Read also
Sarkozy returned to correctional: return to the key stages of the Bygmalion case 

Judge Serge Tournaire ordered the trial of Nicolas Sarkozy and thirteen other protagonists in the investigation into his campaign expenses during the 2012 presidential election and the false invoices from the company Bygmalion. The other judge seized, Renaud van Ruymbeke, did not sign the order for reference. Sources close to the case explained to AFP that he did not share the same analysis on an implication of the former head of state for the offense of illegal campaign financing.

Concretely, the former president is accused of“have exceeded the ceiling for election expenses”, "by committing, without taking into account the two alerts sent by the accountants of his campaign on March 7 and April 26, 2012, election expenses for an amount of at least 42,8 million euros", explained a judicial source. The legal ceiling was set at 22,5 million euros.

«Besides the fact that my client formally denies having been informed of any overrun of his campaign account, I affirm that the fanciful figure of 42,8 million euros (...) was never mentioned during the 'information“, added Thierry Herzog, specifying that this figure did not appear in the reasons for his indictment. The lawyer adds thatthe Constitutional Council has already sanctioned the overspending of its campaign account, by a final decision of July 4, 2013 which is binding on all courts". This decision had been taken before the revelation of the case and related to a much lower overrun, up to 466 euros.

Read also
Sarkozy, the business genius 

François Fillon, right-wing presidential candidate, said he had "a moving thought" for Nicolas Sarkozy, whom justice sent back to trial for his expenses linked to the 2012 campaign, according to comments reported to AFP by his entourage. "This morning, I have a moved thought for Nicolas Sarkozy and all those who will be challenged by justice in the coming days“, he said in front of LR parliamentarians gathered at his Parisian HQ, while he himself is the subject of a preliminary investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) on suspicion of fictitious jobs targeting his wife and his two children.

 

Source (s):  LIBERATION (with AFP)