A Paris court has convicted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison.
In his trial into allegations that the late Libyan tyrant Moamer Kadhafi assisted in financing his successful 2007 presidential campaign, the court reportedly found him guilty of criminal conspiracy on Thursday.
Prosecutors were given a month to notify the former chief of state when Sarkozy should be sent to prison, and the court mandated that he be placed in custody at a later time. This provision will be in effect even if Sarkozy files an appeal of the decision.
CNN reports that the court also found former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, two of Sarkozy’s closest aides during his presidency, guilty of criminal association but cleared them of other accusations.
According to the Paris court ruling, judges were not persuaded that the conservative leader was directly involved in the funding effort or that any Libyan funds were actually used in Sarkozy’s successful campaign, even though they did believe that the men had banded together to seek Libyan funding for his 2007 campaign.
Sarkozy permitted his close allies to contact Libyan authorities “to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing,” the chief judge stated during an hours-long reading of the lengthy verdict. She read the verdict, and he stood.
However, the court also stated that it was unable to confirm that Sarkozy’s campaign was ultimately funded by Libyan funds. However, the court clarified that a corrupt scheme can still be illegal under French law even if money was not given or could not be demonstrated.
