Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in jail after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a case related to millions of euros of illicit funds from the late Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi.
The Paris criminal court acquitted him of all other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing.
The ruling means he will spend time in jail even if he launches an appeal, which Sarkozy says he intends to do.
Speaking after Thursday's hearing, the 70-year-old, who was president from 2007-12, said the verdict was extremely serious for rule of law.
Sarkozy, who claims the case is politically motivated, was accused of using the funds from Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign. In exchange, the prosecution alleged Sarkozy promised to help Gaddafi combat his reputation as a pariah with Western countries.
Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy had allowed close aides to contact Libyan officials with a view to obtaining financial support for his campaign. But the court ruled that there was not enough evidence to find Sarkozy was the beneficiary of the illegal campaign financing.
He was also ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 ($117,000, £87,000).
There was a shocked intake of breath in court when the judge read out her sentence. Sarkozy could be sent to prison in Paris in the coming days – a first for a former French president and a humiliating blow for a man who has always protested his innocence in this trial and the other legal cases against him.
What happened today... is of extreme gravity in regard to the rule of law, and for the trust one can have in the justice system, Sarkozy said outside the court building.
If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high, he said.
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father's money for campaign funding.
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine claimed that he had written proof that Sarkozy's campaign was abundantly financed by Tripoli, with payments continuing even after he became president.
Others accused in the trial included former interior ministers Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux, with Gueant found guilty of corruption and Hortefeux guilty of criminal conspiracy.
Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and denying all charges related to wrongdoings.
Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has faced several criminal investigations.
He had also appealed a February 2024 ruling that found him guilty of overspending on his 2012 campaign and subsequently hiring a PR firm to cover it up, resulting in a one-year sentence, of which six months were suspended.
In 2021, he became the first former French president to receive a custodial sentence for attempting to bribe a judge and had, at one point, been allowed to serve his time at home with an electronic tag.
