Nicolas Sarkozy becomes the first former French president sentenced to prison

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison after being convicted of a criminal plot in a 2007 presidential campaign financing program with Libyan funds, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.

The decision marks the first time in modern French history that a former president will serve time behind bars.

The Paris court said that Sarkozy, 70, would not immediately be placed in police custody but would begin to serve his sentence on a date to be determined later.

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The judges recognized Sarkozy guilty of a criminal association between 2005 and 2007, while he was Minister of the Interior, for having allowed close aid to ask for campaign money in Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors. (Christophe Ena / AP)

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head 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 AP.

“What they humiliated today is France,” he insisted.

The panel of judges declared Sarkozy guilty of a criminal association between 2005 and 2007, when he was Minister of the Interior.

He was also convicted of authorizing close aid to ask for campaign money in Libya in exchange for diplomatic favors during the reign recently Dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

However, he was acquitted by three other accusations, including passive corruption and illegal campaign funding.

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Nicolas Sarkozy, on the left, and the Libyan chief Colonel Moammar Gaddafi in 2007 at the Palais d’Elysee in Paris. (AP photo / François Mori)

In court, chief judge Nathalie Gavarino also said that the conspiracy was aimed at “preparing an act of corruption at the highest level possible in the event that you were elected President of the Republic,” said AP.

She also described the facts as “exceptionally serious” and badly the public’s confidence in democratic institutions.

Sarkozy, who directed France from 2007 to 2012, rejected the allegations during the trial of three months, describing them as “idea” pushed by aid without its approval.

“I am convicted of having supposedly allowing my staff to continue the idea-the idea of ​​illegal funding,” he said.

Two of Sarkozy’s long -standing allies were also sentenced on Thursday.

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A Paris court sentenced the former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison. (Thibault Camus / AP)

Former Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux was sentenced to two years to be purged under electronic surveillance.

Claude Guéant, the former Sarkozy chief of staff, was sentenced to six years in prison but spared immediate imprisonment for health reasons.

The judges said that the men had secretly met the Libyan intelligence chief Abdullah Al-Senoussi, brother-in-law of Moammar Gaddafi, as part of a “corruption pact”.

The court also noted that he could not prove that the Libyan funds directly reached Sarkozy’s campaign, but that French law authorizes the conviction if a corrupt intention is established, even without financial transfer.

Sarkozy has since sworn to appeal.

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The case dates back to 2011, when Libyan officials said that Tripoli sent millions of euros to Sarkozy’s campaign.

He has also faced multiple legal battles since his departure from his duties, in particular separate convictions for corruption and illegal funding for campaigns.