French Court Exempts Sarkozy from Electronic Monitoring in Campaign Case
Former President Nicolas Sarkozy avoids electronic monitoring for illegal campaign financing conviction, marking the second time the device has been removed from his sentence due to his age.
A French court has ruled that former President Nicolas Sarkozy will not be required to wear an electronic ankle tag as part of his sentence for illegal campaign financing. The decision, which pertains to his conviction regarding the illegal funding of his 2012 re-election bid, exempts the 71-year-old politician from the electronic monitoring requirement.
According to a source close to the case, the court's decision to waive the tracker was driven principally by Sarkozy's advanced age. This ruling was issued on Tuesday, following a separate judicial rejection of the former president's request to merge his sentences from the Bygmalion and Bismuth cases, a move that would have necessitated further electronic surveillance.
Sarkozy has faced a series of legal challenges since concluding his single term in office between 2007 and 2012. He recently became the first modern French president to serve time in custody, spending 20 days in a case concerning alleged Libyan funding for his 2007 campaign. His appeal trial regarding that specific conviction remains ongoing.
In the Bygmalion case, France's highest court upheld a six-month prison term for overspending on his 2012 campaign and attempting to conceal the expenditure with a public relations firm. While the initial sentencing in that matter did not explicitly mandate an ankle tag, the current ruling for the campaign financing offence specifically addresses the removal of such monitoring.
This marks the second instance where an electronic tag has been removed from Sarkozy's sentence due to age. He previously served a sentence with the device in the Bismuth case, which involved attempts to extract favours from a judge a decade earlier. That monitoring was lifted in May 2025 after several months, also citing his age as the determining factor.
Sarkozy has consistently denied all allegations against him across the various cases brought against him. The court's recent decision to exempt him from the ankle tag represents a significant adjustment to his current custodial arrangements, distinct from the prison term he faces in the Bygmalion matter.
