Nicholas Sarkozy, the former French president, was sentenced to 5 years in prison

On Thursday, the Paris Court sentenced the former French president Nicholas Sarkozy For a period of five years in prison after he found him guilty of criminal conspiracy in an alleged plan to finance his 2007 campaign with money from Libya.

In a sudden decision, the court ruled that he would be detained even if he was appealing. But he also said that the date of the ruling will happen at a later time, as the 70 -year -old will be a humiliation to lead from the courtroom in the handcuffs.

The court found that Sarkozy is a guilty of the criminal assembly in a conspiracy from 2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic preferences. But he cleared him of three other charges – including negative corruption, financing the illegal campaign, and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy denounced the ruling, saying that he is a victim of scandalous injustice and that he would resume.

“This injustice is a scandal,” he said.

He said: “I ask the French people – whether they voted for me or not, whether they support me or not – to understand what has just happened. Hate does not really know any limits.”

He said that if he ended up behind bars, he would do so “with my head high.”

The court also found two of the closest Sarkozy partners when he was president – former ministers Claude Joyant and Baris Horttefo – guilty of the criminal assembly, but they also acquired some other charges.

In general, the ruling indicated that the court believed that the men conspired in a Libyan financing request for a 2007 Sarkozy campaign, but the judges were not convinced that the conservative leader himself was directly involved in the financing effort or that any Libyan money had been used in his winning campaign.

“In order to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing the financing of the campaign.” She stood as she read the ruling.

But the court also said that it could not be determined with certainty that the Libyan funds ended up financing the Sarkozy campaign. However, under French law, the corrupt plan can still be a crime even if the money is not paid or not proven.

Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, singer and model Carla Brunei Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom, who was also full of journalists and members of the public. Sarkozy sat in the front row from the defendant’s seats. His three adult children were also in the room.

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007, denied his presentation on his re -election in 2012, all violations during a three -month trial earlier this year, which also included 11 defendants, including three former ministers.

Despite the multiple legal scandals that have been absent from his presidential heritage, Sarkozy is still an influential figure in the right-wing policy in France and in entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.

The accusations followed their roots until 2011, when the Libyan and Jadafi news agency said that the Libyan state has secretly converted millions of euros into a Sarkozy campaign for the year 2007.

In 2012, the French interrogation port published what he said was a Libyan intelligence note indicating the Euro 50 million financing agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as fraud and sued defamation. On Thursday, the court ruled that “it now seems that this document is likely to be forgery.”

Investigators also looked at a series of trips to Libya, which was carried out by people close to Sarkozy when he served as Minister of Interior from 2005 and 2007, including his chief of staff.

In 2016, a Lebanese-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takuddin Medicibrt informed that he had handed over criticism-filled bags from Tripoli to the French Ministry of Interior under Sarkozy. He later declined his statement.

This reflection is now the focus of a separate investigation in the futility of the potential witnesses. Sarkozy and his wife have been delivered initially to participate in the alleged efforts to pressure Takieddine. This case has not yet gone to trial.

Takieddine, who was one of the participating defendants, died on Tuesday in Beirut. He was 75 years old. He fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

General prosecutors claimed that Sarkozy had benefited from knowledge of what they described as a “corruption agreement” with the Gaddafi government.

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Libya’s dictator was a long time ago and killed in an uprising in 2011, and his referee ended for four decades in the country of North Africa.

The trial shed light on the back of France with Libya in the first decade of the twentieth century, when Gaddafi was seeking to restore diplomatic relations with the West. Before that, Libya was considered an outcast country.

Sarkozy rejected allegations as political motives and dependent on forged evidence. During the trial, he condemned a “conspiracy” that he said was organized by “liars and fraudsters”, including the “Gaddafi clan”.

He suggested that the allegations of financing the illegal campaign are to take revenge for his call – as President of France – to remove Gaddafi.

Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders to pushed military intervention in Libya in 2011, when the protests invaded the Arab Spring in support of democracy, the Arab world.

“What is the credibility that can be provided for such data that is characterized by revenge seal?” Sarkozy asked in the comments during the trial.

In June, Sarkozy was stripped of his honor medal – the top of the France prize – after being convicted of a separate case.

Earlier, he was convicted of the corruption and influence that wanders his attempt to bribe a judge in 2014 in exchange for information about a legal issue involved in it.

Sarkozy was sentenced to wear a one -year electronic monitoring bracelet. He obtained a conditional version in May because of his age, which allowed him to remove the electronic brand after he wore it for more than three months.

In another case, Sarkozy was convicted last year of financing the illegal campaign in the offer of his failed re -election for the year 2012. He was accused of spending nearly twice the maximum legal limit and was sentenced to a year in prison, six months were suspended.

Sarkozy has denied these allegations. This ruling has appealed the highest cracking court, and this appeal is suspended