9, November 2023
France: ex-president Sarkozy appeals 2012 campaign fraud conviction 0
A Paris court on Wednesday began hearing former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal against his conviction for illegal campaign financing in a failed 2012 re-election bid.
The 68-year-old former French head of state appeared relaxed as he appeared for the hearing in a grey suit, speaking with people in the public gallery before proceedings began.
Conservative Sarkozy has faced a litany of legal problems since his one term in office from 2007 until 2012, and has been charged separately with corruption, bribery, influence-peddling, and breaking campaign financing laws.
In the so-called “Bygmalion affair”, the former head of state was sentenced to one year in prison in September 2021 on charges that his right-wing party, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm to hide the true cost of his 2012 re-election bid.
France sets strict limits on campaign spending.
Prosecutors said that the firm, Bygmalion, invoiced the UMP rather than the campaign. They said Sarkozy spent nearly 43 million euros on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount of 22.5 million euros.
Thirteen other people — including members of the UMP party, accountants and Bygmalion executives — were found guilty of various charges, ranging from forgery and fraud to complicity in illegal campaign financing.
In the original trial, only four defendants, including the deputy head of the campaign, Jerome Lavrilleux, admitted any responsibility.
Sarkozy denied all wrongdoing, insisting that while there had indeed been “false invoices and fictitious agreements… the money had not gone into (his) campaign”.
The appeal trial is scheduled to last nearly five weeks, with Sarkozy slated to testify on November 23.
Contacted by AFP, Sarkozy’s lawyers declined to issue any statements prior to the hearing.
Sarkozy, who was criticised by the prosecution in the original trial for only turning up for the day of his actual hearing and deeming himself to be “above the fray”, is expected to attend some of the most important sessions this time around.
He was charged last month in a separate witness tampering case relating to alleged Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential win.
Sarkozy also faces a separate probe into possible potential influence-peddling after he received a payment by Russian insurance firm Reso-Garantia of three million euros in 2019 while working as a consultant.
Despite his legal troubles, Sarkozy remains a hugely influential figure on the French right, courted by politicians and writing regular books that are major publishing events.
Source: AFP
24, November 2023
Dublin: Police arrest 34 as PM says rioters brought ‘shame’ on Ireland 0
A night of torched vehicles and shop looting sparked in Dublin after a knife attack outside a school was of an “extraordinary” level of violence unseen in decades, police said Friday.
The violence started when a group broke through a police cordon Thursday in the area where three young children and a women who was caring for them were injured in a knife attack.
Groups went on to torch busses and trams and loot shops in one of Dublin’s most famous throughfares, O’Connell Street.
Garda Commissioner Drew Harris told a press conference in the Irish capital on Friday that multiple Irish police officers were injured in a running battle with the group that stormed the crime scene in Dublin on Thursday night.
He said that one officer received a serious injury, with “numerous other members injured” as missiles were thrown at them.
“What we saw last night was an extraordinary outbreak of violence,” Harris said. “These are scenes that we have not seen in decades.”
Harris said “all lines of inquiry” are open to determine the motive for the knife attack.
Harris said 34 people were arrested after “huge destruction” by the “riotous mob” with 13 shops significantly damaged or subjected to looting.
A police cordon was set up around the Irish parliament building, Leinster House, late on Thursday night, amid concerns that the violence could spread.
‘Motivated by hate’
Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said that protesters who battled police and looted shops were motivated by “hate” and brought “shame on Ireland”.
“Those involved brought shame on Dublin, brought shame on Ireland and brought shame on their families and themselves,” Varadkar told reporters.
For his part, Harris blamed a “complete lunatic faction driven by far-right ideology” for the disorder.
“We have a complete lunatic hooligan faction driven by far-right ideology, and also then this disruptive tendency engaged in serious violence.”
Harris said calm was restored in the city shortly after midnight.
Irish Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the scenes of disorder were “intolerable” and that a “thuggish and manipulative element must not be allowed to use an appalling tragedy to wreak havoc”.
“We will not tolerate a small number using an appalling incident to spread division,” she said.
Some protesters carried signs reading “Irish Lives Matter” and waved Irish flags through a neighbourhood home to a large immigrant community.
One protester told AFP that “Irish people are being attacked by these scum.”
Ireland has been facing a chronic housing crisis, with the government estimating that there is a deficit of hundreds of thousands of homes for the general population.
Inflated rents, high interest rates and lack of supply create European housing crisis
Widespread dissatisfaction has fed into a backlash against asylum seekers and refugees, and far-right figures have promoted anti-immigration sentiment at rallies and on social media with claims that “Ireland is full”.
Source: AFP