Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a long-running investigation into illegal campaign financing from the regime of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The verdict was delivered Wednesday by the Paris criminal court, with Judge Nathalie Gavarino stating that Sarkozy allowed senior aides to solicit millions of euros from Gaddafi’s government to fund his 2007 presidential campaign.
While the court acquitted Sarkozy of passive corruption and illegal campaign financing due to insufficient direct evidence, he was ordered to pay a €100,000 fine. The 70-year-old, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, is the first former French head of state to be sentenced to prison time.
Gasps were heard in the courtroom as the sentence was read. Sarkozy, visibly shaken, condemned the ruling as politically motivated and announced plans to appeal. “If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail — but with my head held high,” he told reporters outside the court.
The case dates back to 2013, when Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, son of the Libyan dictator, claimed that Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign had been bankrolled by Tripoli. The investigation intensified after Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine alleged he delivered €5 million in cash to Sarkozy’s aides. Prosecutors believe up to €50 million in total may have flowed from Libya to Paris.
Several of Sarkozy’s political allies were also convicted. Former Interior Minister Claude Guéant was found guilty of corruption, while former minister Brice Hortefeux was convicted of conspiracy. Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, is facing separate charges related to alleged evidence tampering.
This latest conviction adds to a string of legal challenges for the former president. In 2021, Sarkozy was sentenced to a year of house arrest for attempting to bribe a judge. In 2024, he received another one-year sentence, partly suspended, for exceeding spending limits during his failed 2012 re-election campaign.
With Wednesday’s verdict, Sarkozy now faces the real prospect of serving time in prison, pending appeal. The ruling is viewed as a historic milestone in French political and judicial history, underscoring mounting scrutiny over political corruption at the highest levels.
