Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy Stripped of France’s Highest Honor Following Conviction on Corruption Charges

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been stripped of his Legion d’honneur (Legion of Honor) award after his conviction on graft charges.

The removal of the national honor of Sarkozy, who led France between 2007 and 2012, was announced in a decree published Sunday.

It comes despite the opposition of current French President Emmanuel Macron, who said in April that he thought that it was important for “former presidents to be respected.”

Sarkozy’s Offence

Sarkozy, in the aftermath of his heavy defeat in the 2012 French presidential election, was found guilty earlier this year of trying to secure favors from a judge illegally. He was ordered to wear an electronic ankle bracelet in place of a one-year jail sentence in addition to stripping him of the award.

Under the rules of the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest order of both civil and military merit, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte, recipients automatically lose the award if they are convicted of a crime or receive a prison sentence of at least one year.

Sarkozy has now become the second French head of state to be stripped of the award after Philippe Petain, who headed the collaborationist Vichy regime during World War II and was convicted in August 1945 for high treason and conspiring with the Nazi occupiers.

Sarkozy is currently appealing the conviction at the European Court of Human Rights while also being tried in a separate case on charges of accepting illegal campaign financing in an alleged pact with late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.