Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his presidential campaign of 2007 with Libyan funds, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
The pronunciation marks the first time in modern French history that a former president will serve behind bars.
The court in Paris said that Sarkozy, 70, would not be taken into custody immediately, but will begin to challenge his sentence on a date that will be determined later.
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Judges found Sarkozy guilty of the criminal association between 2005 and 2007, when he was Minister of the Interior, for allowing close assistants to seek campaign fees from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors. (Christophe Ena/ AP)
“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal,” said Sarkozy outside the courthouse with his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, according to the AP.
“What they humiliated today is France,” he maintained.
Sarkozy found the panel of judges guilty of the criminal association between 2005 and 2007, when he served as Minister of the Interior.
He was also found guilty of allowing close assistants to search for campaign fees from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors during the rule of recent times Dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
However, he was acquitted of three other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing.
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Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Gadhafi in 2007 in the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
In the court, the main judge Nathalie Gavarino also said that the conspiracy “proposed an act of corruption at the highest possible level in the event that you were chosen as president of the Republic,” the AP reported.
She also described the facts as “exceptionally serious” and harmful to the public trust in democratic institutions.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had rejected the allegations during the three -month process and called them an “idea” pushed by assistants without his approval.
“I am convicted because I probably allowed my employees to pursue the idea – the idea of illegal financing,” he said.
Two of the old allies of Sarkozy were also convicted on Thursday.
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A court of Paris sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison. (Thibault Camus/AP)
Former Minister of the Interior Brice Hortefeux received a two -year prison sentence to be taken care of under electronic monitoring.
Claude Guéant, Sarkozy’s ex-chef of staff, was sentenced to six years in prison but saved immediate imprisonment for health reasons.
Judges said that the men secretly met the Libyan intelligence commissioner Abdullah al-Sousssi, brother-in-law of Moammar Gadhafi, as part of a ‘corruption pact’.
The court also noted that it could not prove that Libyan funds reached Sarkozy’s campaign directly, but said that the French law allows conviction as corrupt intention, even without a financial transfer.
Sarkozy has since vowed to appeal.
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The case follows until 2011, when Libyan officials Tripoli claimed millions of euros to the Sarkozy campaign in Leiden.
He has also had to deal with several legal fights since leaving his office, including separate convictions for corruption and illegal campaign financing.
