France’s Sarkozy says he will stop talking to media for 24 hours after ankle tag
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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who turned 70 last week, was fitted with the ankle monitor after losing corruption appeal.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS - Nicolas Sarkozy said Feb 8 he would no longer speak to the media for 24 hours after he became France’s first former president to be fitted with an electronic tag.
Sarkozy, who turned 70 last week, was fitted with the ankle monitor for a year after the country’s highest appeals court found him guilty of illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge.
The ankle bracelet was imposed as an alternative to spending one year in jail.
“I have decided to put my public activities as a former president on hold and to renounce all forms of expression in the media,” the right-wing politician wrote on X.
The trained lawyer however indicated that he would continue to practise his profession, “as is my right”.
Sarkozy, who served as president between 2007 and 2012, will only be allowed out of his home between 8am and 8pm.
However he will be allowed an extra hour-and-a-half in the three evenings a week where he has to attend trial as a defendant in another case.
An official from the prison service went to his home on Feb 7 to put the bracelet on Sarkozy’s ankle.
The former head of state has been beset with legal troubles since losing his 2012 presidential re-election bid.
He nonetheless remains an influential figure and is known to regularly meet President Emmanuel Macron.
In his message on X, Sarkozy indicated that he would file an appeal against his conviction “before the end of the month” with the European Court of Human Rights.
That “will determine whether I have been the victim of an injustice, as I believe”, he said. AFP
