French court sentences Sarkozy to five years in prison for illegal Libyan financing

(AFP) French justice on Thursday sentenced former conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison for conspiracy in the case involving alleged illegal Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign.

The Paris court also requested provisional application of the sentence, which would not be suspended if the 70-year-old former president appealed the verdict. The court must inform him within a month of his possible prison date.

The president of the court, Nathalie Gavarino, explained that Sarkozy, 70, is guilty of "allowing his close collaborators ... to act in order to obtain financial support."

The conviction of the former president follows two other charges of corruption, influence peddling and illegal campaign financing in 2012, one of which led to his loss of France's highest distinction, the Legion of Honor.

Sarkozy, who claims his innocence, attended the reading of the sentence at the Paris court accompanied by his wife, model, singer and actress Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and three of his children, AFP noted.

Prosecutors had requested a seven-year prison sentence for the president between 2007 and 2012, considering him the "true" perpetrator of a pact with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Investigators believe that in exchange for money to finance his 2007 election campaign, Gaddafi was promised help restoring his international image after Tripoli was accused of bombing a plane in Scotland and another in Niger.

Sarkozy's court

Eleven other people were prosecuted alongside Sarkozy. The court found his former right-hand man Claude Guéant and former Minister Brice Hortefeux guilty.

The case is based on statements by seven former Libyan dignitaries, trips to Libya by Guéant and Hortefeux, monetary transfers and the notebooks of former Libyan Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem, who was found drowned in the Danube River in Vienna in 2012.

The new sentence was overshadowed by the death Tuesday of French-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, 75, from cardiac arrest in Beirut. He was a key accuser of Sarkozy in the case.