Nicolas Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy

A Paris court on Thursday sentenced former president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years of prison for accepting illegal campaign funds from late Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, France 24 reported.

The sentence means that he will be imprisoned whether he launches an appeal or not. The judge also ordered that he pay a €100,000 fine.

Prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy, who has always denied the charges, made a deal with Gaddafi in 2005, when he was France's interior minister, to obtain campaign financing in exchange for supporting the then-isolated Libyan government on the international stage.

The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a scheme from 2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favours. But it cleared him of three other charges – including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom, which was also filled with reporters and members of the public. Sarkozy sat in the front row of the defendant’s seats. His three adult sons were also in the room.

The ruling is the latest in a string of legal hurdles for the right-wing ex-leader, 70, who denied the charges. Sarkozy, who was president of France from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France's highest honour.