Former French President Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy in illegal financing case

A Paris court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty on Thursday of criminal conspiracy, in a case which has seen him stand trial for allegedly accepting illegal campaign financing from the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to secure his 2007 election victory.

However, the court acquitted Sarkozy on Thursday of passive corruption, embezzlement of Libyan public funds and illegal election campaign financing.

The criminal conspiracy charge relates to his involvement in a group that prepared a corruption offence between 2005 and 2007, the court said.

After an extended detailing of its ruling, the court sentenced Sarkozy to five years in prison, an immediate five-year ban on any public function, and a fine of €100,000.

The prison sentence comes "with deferred effect," meaning Sarkozy does not have to begin serving his prison sentence immediately.

The 70-year-old Sarkozy, who held France's highest office between 2007 and 2012, can appeal the verdict. He could also request conditional release because of his age.

However, French law states that he is to be summoned within one month by the public prosecutor's office, which will notify him of the date of his imprisonment. Any appeal will not suspend this security measure.

The Paris court ruling makes Sarkozy the first former French head of state convicted of such a high-level crime.

Prosecutors have accused Sarkozy of forging a deal with Gaddafi in exchange for campaign money, suggesting he helped rehabilitate Libya’s international standing and promised leniency for Gaddafi’s brother-in-law, Abdallah Senoussi, convicted in France for a 1989 airline bombing that killed 170 people.

During the three-month trial earlier this year, judges probed evidence ranging from trips to Tripoli in 2005 to money transfers through offshore accounts, as well as claims that Sarkozy’s government protected and aided Gaddafi’s former chief of staff, Bechir Saleh. They also examined the suspicious death of a Libyan oil minister whose notes mentioned payments “for Sarkozy”.

Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing, insisting there is “not a shred of proof” linking Libyan funds to his campaign. His lawyers argued the case is built on unreliable documents and testimony.

This case adds to Sarkozy’s mounting legal troubles. He has already been convicted in two other cases: the “Bygmalion affair” over his 2012 presidential campaign spending and the so-called “Bismuth case” involving corruption and influence peddling.

Between January and May, the former head of state had to wear an electronic ankle bracelet, an unprecedented punishment for a former president. He has lodged an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The case also implicated 11 co-defendants, among them three former ministers.