Nicolas Sarkozy leaves court with ankle tag after losing corruption appeal

Nicolas Sarkozy has been dealt a severe legal blow after he lost an appeal against his corruption charges but was allowed to leave court with an ankle bracelet.

The court said that the former president could serve his remaining one-year detention sentence for corruption and influence peddling at home with an electronic bracelet.

He was also banned from public office for three years over his attempts to secure favours from a judge in a case uncovered by wiretapping.

Sarkozy became France's first post-war president to have been sentenced to jail.

The 68-year-old left the courtroom without making any comment, but his lawyer said they would appeal before the Court of Cassation, France's highest appeal court.

Calling the ruling “stupefying”, Jacqueline Laffont, the defence lawyer, said: "Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent of the charges. We will not give up this fight."

Sarkozy, who served one term from 2007 to 2012, has been embroiled in legal troubles ever since leaving office.

The man dubbed the "hyper-president" while in office will be retried on appeal from November 2023 in the so-called Bygmalion case, in which he was sentenced to one year in prison in a lower court.

The prosecution accused Sarkozy's team of spending nearly double the legal limit on his failed 2012 re-election campaign, using false billing from a public relations firm called Bygmalion. He has denied any wrongdoing.

On Thursday, French prosecutors demanded he face a new trial over alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign, which he went on to win.

Financial crime prosecutors said Sarkozy and 12 others should face trial over allegations they sought millions of euros in illegal funding from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi, the then Libyan leader.

Sarkozy is accused of corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds but rejects all the charges.

Investigating magistrates are to have the last word on whether or not that trial goes ahead.

Despite his legal woes, Sarkozy still wields significant clout on the Right of French politics and is said to be close to Emmanuel Macron, the president.

Before Sarkozy, the only French leader to be convicted in a criminal trial was Jacques Chirac, his predecessor. He received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for corruption over a fake jobs scandal relating to his time as Paris mayor.