A Paris court has sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after convicting him of criminal conspiracy in connection with alleged Libyan funding of his 2007 election campaign.
Gatekeepers News reports that the judges ruled that Sarkozy, 70, engaged in a criminal association between 2005 and 2007 to secure millions of euros from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in exchange for diplomatic favours.
Although he was cleared of charges including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing the embezzlement of public funds, the verdict still marks a watershed moment in French politics. Sarkozy becomes the first modern-era French president to be handed a prison sentence.
The court also fined him €100,000 and ordered that he remain in custody despite his plan to appeal the ruling.
Sarkozy, who has consistently denied wrongdoing, strongly rejected the decision.
“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal,” he said.
“I ask the French people — whether they voted for me or not, whether they support me or not — to grasp what has just happened. Hatred truly knows no bounds.”
The case adds to Sarkozy’s legal troubles. In 2021, he became the first French president since World War II to be sentenced to prison, after receiving a one-year term for corruption. He served that sentence under house arrest with an electronic tag before being conditionally released.
