OREANDA-NEWS. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will appeal to court after being sentenced to one year in prison. This was announced by Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Erzog, RIA Novosti reports.

“Sarkozy, with whom I just spoke on the phone, asked me to appeal the verdict. And I will do it immediately, ”the lawyer said. On September 30, a Paris court sentenced Sarkozy to one year in prison for receiving illegal campaign finance in 2012.

By a court decision, a politician will be able to serve his sentence outside of prison. He was allowed to go under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The version of the investigation says that Sarkozy almost doubled the permitted amount of campaign funding, although he knew about the existence of a threshold.

Sarkozy reportedly spent $ 43 million on the election campaign in 2012. In 2007, the politician received 150 thousand euros in cash from the heiress of the French company L'Oreal Liliane Bettencourt and spent it on the election campaign. A one-time amount that a candidate can accept as a donation cannot exceed 4.6 thousand euros.

In March of this year, Srakozy received one year in prison and two years probation on charges of corruption and trading in influence. Sarkozy's accomplices - Sarkozy's lawyer Thierry Erzog and ex-judge Gilbert Azibe - received similar sentences. Both were found guilty of divulging state secrets.