Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison.

The former leader, 70, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, but not guilty of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

The three-month court case in Paris was over the alleged illegal financing of Sarkozy‘s 2007 presidential election campaign by the government of late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

In a surprise move, the judge said he would be jailed regardless of whether he appeals the verdict, which usually suspends sentencing. He was not sent straight to prison, however, with the start date of his sentence yet to be decided.

Sarkozy still vowed to appeal regardless, telling reporters outside court on Thursday: “This injustice is a scandal.

“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 ruling undermines confidence in the French justice system, he added, before vowing to “fight right until the end” to “prove his innocence in this affair”.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high,” he concluded.

He was accompanied by his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and his three sons.

Overall, the hours-long verdict suggested the former president and his co-defendants had conspired to seek Libyan campaign funding – but not that he was personally involved or that money was actually used.

The judge said Sarkozy had allowed his associates to reach out to Libyan authorities “to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing”.

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Earlier this year, Sarkozy was stripped of his Legion of Honour medal, France‘s highest accolade, having been involved in multiple court cases.

In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a magistrate for information about a legal case in which he was implicated in 2014. Two years later, he was sentenced to a year on electronic tag, of which six months were suspended. After three months, it was ruled he could remove the monitoring device due to his age.

In another case last year, he was convicted of illegal campaign financing during his unsuccessful 2012 re-election bid, having spent almost twice the allowed amount. He was sentenced to a year in prison, with six months suspended. He has appealed the sentence and is awaiting the outcome from France’s highest court – the Court of Cassation.

Despite his criminal record, Sarkozy has remained an influential figure within the French Right.

Light shed on French-Libyan relations during Gaddafi’s rule

During the Gaddafi finance trial, he described the case against him as a “plot” staged by the “Gaddafi clan” and other “liars and crooks”.

He claimed it was revenge for his decision to call for Gaddafi to be removed from office.

The allegations stretch back to 2011 when a Libyan news agency reported that Gaddafi had said Libya had secretly sent millions of euros to Sarkozy’s election campaign.

A year later, French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it claimed to be a piece of Libyan intelligence referencing a £43.7m funding agreement, which Sarkozy rubbished and saw him sue for defamation.

The court ruled on Thursday that it “now appears most likely that this document was a forgery”.

In the current case, Sarkozy had 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.

Two of them, Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux, both among his closest confidantes during his presidency, were also found guilty of criminal conspiracy but not guilty on other charges.

The trial shed light on France’s relationship with Libya during the 2000s, when Gaddafi, who was toppled and killed in 2011, was trying to restore diplomatic ties with Western countries.

It also saw investigators scrutinise several trips to Libya made by people in Sarkozy’s inner circle while he was still interior minister between 2005 and 2007 – including his chief-of-staff.

In a key development in 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart he had delivered suitcases full of cash from Tripoli to the French interior ministry while Sarkozy was in charge – but later retracted the claims.

Mr Takieddine, who was one of the co-defendants, died aged 75 on Tuesday in Beirut, according to his lawyer Elise Arfi said. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

His change-of-heart is now subject to a separate investigation into alleged witness interference – but it has not yet gone to trial.