Nicolas Sarkozy became France's first post-war president to be sentenced to prison on March 1 when he was given a three-year term, for corruption and influence peddling.
Edouard Balladur and his former defence minister Francois Leotard were charged in 2017 with complicity in the misuse of corporate assets over the sale of submarines to Pakistan and frigates to Saudi Arabia between 1993 and 1995.
Although it is unlikely that the former president will spend any time in prison, he is found guilty of trying to bribe a judge and influence peddling and sentenced to three years in prison, two years of which are suspended.
Known as "Karachi affair", the case is looking into whether the alleged kickbacks from the arms deals financed Edouard Balladur's 1995 presidential election campaign which he eventually lost to late Jacques Chirac.
The former French president's trial on charges of corruption and influence peddling has been suspended pending health assessment of one of his co-defendants.
Francois Fillon was sentenced to five years in prison, three of which were suspended, and slapped with a $423,000 fine but remains free pending appeal.
The annual midsummer Festival of Music usually brings millions of people out onto the streets across the country for impromptu concerts in cafes and on street corners that go on long into the night.
French laws against Muslim women with face-coverings stand in marked contrast to its pandemic policy. Is this a double standard?
With outposts in the Middle East and Africa, France has been involved in Syrian politics since the 1920s and continues to meddle in the region.
Ex-UEFA chief Michel Platini was arrested Tuesday in connection with a probe into the awarding of the 2022 World Cup to Qatar.
Prosecutors claim Sarkozy spent nearly $51 million on his lavish re-election bid, almost double the legal limit of $25.1 million, using fake invoices, and demanded he answer the charges in court.
Macron’s first speech to the press since he became president was meant to offer a change in direction, instead, it delivered more of the same Macron.
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