Ex-French President Sarkozy Jailed for 5 Years

A court on Thursday sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.

In a verdict that will make the rightwinger the first French postwar leader to serve jail time, the Paris criminal court convicted Sarkozy, 70, on criminal conspiracy charges.

However, it acquitted the former head of state, France's president from 2007 to 2012, of corruption and personally accepting illegal campaign financing.

He was also fined €100,000 ($117,000) and banned from holding public office. He has been convicted already in two separate trials but always avoided jail, in one case serving his graft sentence with an electronic tag, which has since been removed.

Sarkozy, who was present in court for the verdict accompanied by his model and musician wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as well as his three sons, looked ashen-faced and shaken after the verdict.

The court's ruling, however, did not follow the conclusion of prosecutors that Sarkozy was the beneficiary of the illegal campaign financing.

He was acquitted on separate charges of embezzlement of Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral campaign.

Another defendant in the trial, Alexandre Djouhri, who is accused of being the intermediary in the scheme, was sentenced to six years and ordered to be placed immediately under arrest.

Sarkozy's right-hand man, Claude Gueant, and ex-minister Brice Hortefeux were ordered to serve six and two years respectively.

Hortefeux, 67, will be able to serve his term with an electronic tag, while Gueant, 80, will not go to prison, due to his health.

Eric Woerth, Sarkozy's 2007 campaign treasurer, was acquitted.