A French appeals court on Wednesday upheld a one-year prison sentence for former President Nicolas Sarkozy on a conviction for corruption and influence peddling. His lawyer said he will take the case to France’s highest court and insisted that Sarkozy is innocent. The 68-year-old ex-president would not have to serve time until a final ruling, and if definitively convicted, he could ask to serve his sentence at home. Sarkozy, 68, was convicted in 2021 of trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. It was the first time in modern French history that a former president had been convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison. Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, denies wrongdoing and appealed the original ruling. The Paris appeals court on Wednesday upheld the conviction and the sentence, according to a court official. His lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont, called the decision “stupefying” and “unjust.” Sarkozy is entitled to ask to be detained at home with an electronic bracelet, standard practice for sentences of two years or less. He also received a two-year suspended sentence, which he will not have to serve if he commits no new offense in the next five years. It is one of multiple legal cases Sarkoky has faced. He was convicted later in 2021 of illegal campaign financing of his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid. Last week, prosecutors asked for him to be sent to trial on charges that he took millions in illegal financing for his 2007 campaign by the regime of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Members of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) have arrested a convicted member of the banned militant group Hizb ut-Tahrir from Dhaka's Jatrabari area. The arrestee was identified as Tauhidur Rahman Tauhid, 32, an active member of the ‘Dawah’ and finance department of the militant group. He was sentenced to two years' rigorous imprisonment by an Anti-Terrorism Tribunal. Read more: 12 militants, 14 KNF members arrested so far in anti-militancy drive in Bandarban: RAB Tipped off, a special team of Rab-2 conducted a drive in Dhaka's Jatrabari on Saturday and arrested Tauhid, Senior Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Md Fazlul Haque, senior additional director (Media) of Rab-2, said. Tauhid was indicted in a case filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act at the capital's Hazaribagh Police Station. He has been absconding for the past 11 years and continued his involvement with the militant group, said the Rab official. According to the Rab official, Tauhid was actively involved in anti-state activities -- holding meetings to conspire against the government and distributing leaflets and posters of Hizb ut-Tahrir to encourage madrasa and school students to be engaged in militancy. Read more: 3 ‘members of new militant outfit’ held with arms, explosives in Bandarban Efforts are on to nab his associates based on his information. Legal processes are underway against the arrestee, said the Rab officer.

A Lalmonirhat court on Tuesday sentenced two members of banned militant outfit Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) to life term imprisonment and three others to 10 years imprisonment. The lifers are Hasan Ali, 23, and Asmat Ali Laltu, 25, of the district. The other convicts are-Safiul Alam Saddam, 22, Abu Nayeem, 25, and Ali Hossain, 20. Lalmonirhat District and Session Judge Mizanur Rahman of Special Tribunal-1 delivered the sentence. READ: Truck driver killed in Lalmonirhat road crash The court also fined the five convicts Tk 5,000, in default, to serve in jail for another six months. Lalmonirhat court police sub-inspector (SI) Musa Alam said a team from Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) -13 of Rangpur detained the five ABT men after conducting a drive at a house in Kaliganj upazila of Lalmonirhat on October 30 in 2018. During the drive, the Rab members seized foreign pistols, magazines, firing pins, detonators and bullets from the militants' possession. On the following day, a case was filed at the Kaliganj police station against the detainees.