Former French President Sarkozy's Campaign Finance Conviction Upheld by Highest Court

France's highest court has upheld the conviction against former President Nicolas Sarkozy regarding illegal campaign financing during his 2012 re-election attempt, marking his second definitive conviction.

This ruling comes shortly after Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, spent 20 days in jail for a separate case involving alleged Libyan funding of his 2007 campaign, becoming the first post-war French president to serve prison time.

The Court of Cassation confirmed on Wednesday that Sarkozy stands "definitively convicted" in the 2012 campaign financing case, upholding his sentence of six months with electronic monitoring that was previously imposed by an appeals court.

Prosecutors established that Sarkozy's right-wing party collaborated with Bygmalion, a public relations firm, to conceal the true expenses of his 2012 electoral campaign. According to evidence, he spent nearly 43 million euros (approximately $50 million) on his campaign, almost twice the legal limit of 22.5 million euros.

While his co-defendants were directly implicated in the double-billing system allegedly used to mask expenses, Sarkozy was held accountable as the beneficiary of the illegal financing arrangement.

Throughout the proceedings, Sarkozy has consistently maintained his innocence, calling the allegations "lies" and denying "any criminal responsibility." His lawyers, Patrice Spinosi and Emmanuel Piwnica, have acknowledged the court's decision in a joint statement to AFP.

The former president faces an upcoming trial in the Libyan case, with appeals scheduled for March next year. In December last year, he exhausted his final legal options in yet another case involving attempts to extract favors from a judge, serving that sentence with an electronic ankle monitor until May.

Despite his mounting legal challenges, Sarkozy remains influential in French right-wing politics. President Emmanuel Macron met with him before his incarceration, and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, a former protégé, generated controversy by visiting Sarkozy in Paris's La Sante prison.

A court subsequently restricted Sarkozy from meeting with the minister and other officials as part of conditions tied to his release pending the appeals trial in the Libyan case.

Two weeks following his release, the former president announced plans to publish a book detailing his three-week imprisonment experience, scheduled for release next month.