John AdoyiFormer President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been formally stripped of the country’s highest honour, the Légion d’Honneur, following his conviction in a corruption case.
The 70-year-old leader, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has faced multiple legal battles since leaving office.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelLast year, an appeal court upheld Sarkozy’s conviction for illegally attempting to influence a judge in exchange for favours.
He was sentenced to one year in prison but was permitted to serve the term under house arrest with an electronic ankle tag rather than behind bars.
Under the rules of the Légion d’Honneur, any individual definitively sentenced to a prison term of one year or more is automatically removed from the prestigious order. The decision to revoke Sarkozy’s award had been widely expected following the court’s ruling.
Sarkozy, who has exhausted all legal appeals in France, has now taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a final attempt to overturn his conviction. His lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, confirmed that the former president had “taken note” of the removal of his Légion d’Honneur, but stressed that the ECHR petition remains “still pending.”
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Spinosi argued that a ruling in Sarkozy’s favour by the ECHR could potentially quash both his criminal conviction and his exclusion from the Légion d’Honneur.
Sarkozy becomes only the second former French head of state to lose the honour after Nazi collaborator Philippe Pétain, who was convicted of high treason in 1945 for his role in the Vichy regime during the Second World War.
The legal troubles continue to overshadow Sarkozy’s political legacy, as he faces separate trials over alleged campaign finance violations and other corruption claims. Despite his legal battles, he remains an influential figure in French conservative politics.
