Sarkozy's 'cardinal' Claude Guéant jailed in Paris
Claude Guéant, once Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-hand man, a former French police chief who remained faithful throughout the scandals that have since engulfed the former French president, was on Monday jailed in the Santé prison in Paris. Fabrice Arfi and Michel Deléan report on the fall of a man nicknamed ‘The Cardinal’, whose loyalty was rewarded with posts that elevated him to secretary general of the presidential office, the Élysée Palace, and subsequently as Sarkozy’s hardline law-and-order interior minister, who is implicated in numerous corruption scandals and who, in the eyes of investigating magistrates, has yet to tell the full truth of what he knows about his former boss.
ClaudeClaude Guéant, who under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy served as secretary general of the Élysée Palace and subsequently as interior minister, and who between 2002 and 2012 acted as Sarkozy’s indispensable right-hand man, prior to which he served as a regional prefect and as general director of France’s national police force, has been jailed for nine months for failing, despite having the means to do so, to pay towards the sum of a fine and damages awarded against him after his conviction in 2017 for embezzling public funds.
