Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy Sentenced to Five Years Behind Bars

Nicolas Sarkozy, the ex-president of France, was convicted today by a French court of conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with assistance from the late President of Libya, Col. Muammar Qaddafi. This historic ruling has made Sarkozy the first former president of contemporary France to face real prison time. The 70-year-old will be incarcerated even though he plans to appeal. Additionally, he was ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 euros.

Nicolas Sarkozy was on trial for multiple offenses: he was found guilty of one – “criminal association” – but was cleared of the other corruption-related allegations: “passive corruption,” “illegal financing of an electoral campaign,” The court characterized Zarkozy’s actions as “exceptionally serious” and noted that his participation in attempts to gather campaign funds from Libya had the potential to “undermine the public’s trust in institutions.” The court stated that it could not definitively conclude that Libyan funds were used to finance Sarkozy’s campaign; nonetheless, it emphasised that under French law, a corrupt scheme can still constitute a crime even if no money was exchanged or if such payments cannot be substantiated.

Sarkozy, elected in 2007 but defeated in his re-election attempt in 2012, refuted all allegations of misconduct during a three-month trial earlier this year, which also included 11 co-defendants, among them three former ministers. Among the other defendants are former ministers Claude Guéant, Brice Hortefeux, and Éric Woerth. The prosecution requested sentences of six, three, and one year in prison for them, respectively. Claude Gueant and Brice Hortefeux were found guilty of criminal association. Additionally, three years in prison have been sought for Thierry Gaubert, a close associate of Nicolas Sarkozy.

Interestingly, another defendant, Ziad Takieddine, a Franco-Lebanese businessman, passed away this Tuesday in Beirut at the age of 75. He was a key figure in this case, as he was one of the main alleged intermediaries in the Sarkozy-Qaddafi affair. Takieddine was the main accuser against the former French president. The businessman was absent from the trial as he was on the run in Lebanon. Now deceased, he will never face trial in this case.

Upon leaving the court, whose ruling left the audience gobsmacked, Sarkozy was interviewed by the press and stated:

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal”

Once imprisoned, Nicolas Sarkozy will have the opportunity to request parole. One of the factors that will support his case is his age. According to Article 729 of the Code of Criminal Procedure,  parole may be granted to individuals aged 70 as long as the integration or reintegration of the convicted person is assured…

Le Figaro reports on former French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s sentencing…

Libyan Financing: Nicolas Sarkozy Sentenced to Five Years in Prison with Deferred Arrest Warrant

The former [French]president was found guilty this Thursday of “criminal conspiracy” and acquitted of corruption and illegal campaign financing.

For the first time in the history of the Republic, a former president will go behind bars: the Paris court sentenced  Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison on Thursday for having ” allowed his close associates ” to approach Muammar Gaddafi‘s Libya with a view to obtaining illegal financing for his 2007 campaign. Even if he appeals, the sixth president of the French Fifth Republic (2007-2012), convicted in this trial for criminal conspiracy and already definitively sentenced in the wiretapping affair, will be imprisoned in the coming weeks.

The 70-year-old former head of state will be summoned within a month by the prosecutor’s office, which will inform him of his incarceration date. A possible appeal will not suspend this measure. The presiding judge, Nathalie Gavarino, considered that “as a minister, president of the UMP,” Nicolas Sarkozy had, between 2005 and May 2007, the date of his accession to the Élysée, “allowed his close collaborators and political supporters – over whom he had authority and who acted in his name -“to solicit the Libyan authorities ” in order to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support in Libya with a view to obtaining campaign funding.”

According to the court, “secret meetings” between  Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux and a high-ranking Libyan official at the end of 2005 “only made sense because of the need to obtain funds” for Sarkozy’s campaign, at a time when the person concerned was not yet assured of the UMP’s nomination and funding for the 2007 presidential election. However, the court considered that it had no proof that this illegal electoral funding had materialized.

Acquittal for illegal financing of electoral campaign

This five-year sentence is slightly less than the seven years in prison requested by the prosecution at the end of March, following a three-month hearing. The prosecution accused him of having entered into a ” Faustian corruption pact with one of the most disreputable dictators of the last 30 years ” and of being both the ” sponsor ” and the beneficiary of illegal campaign financing.

The judges, however, did not follow the interpretation of the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which had presented Nicolas Sarkozy as a beneficiary of corruption through the financing of his election campaign with Libyan funds. They acquitted the former president of the charges of receiving stolen goods and embezzling Libyan public funds, passive corruption, and illegal financing of an election campaign.

“The court cannot establish with certainty that there was more than 35,000 euros in cash in this campaign, although it cannot be completely excluded.”

The court found that money had indeed flowed from Libya, but that the evidence in the proceedings did not ” demonstrate ” that these funds ultimately ended up in the Sarkozy campaign coffers. ” The court cannot establish with certainty that there was more than €35,000 in cash in this campaign, even if it cannot be completely ruled out ,” Gavarino said.

Guéant and Hortefeux condemned

Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, two former close associates of Nicolas Sarkozy, were also found guilty of criminal conspiracy. The former was also found guilty of passive bribery and forgery and sentenced to six years, while Brice Hortefeux received a two-year prison sentence. Éric Woerth, treasurer of the 2007 campaign, was acquitted. Following the death in Lebanon on Tuesday of one of the defendants and a key figure in the case, Ziad Takieddine, the Paris court declared the extinction of public proceedings against him following the communication of an official death certificate.

Following the prosecution’s indictment, which had requested the heaviest sentence against him, Nicolas Sarkozy immediately denounced ” the excessiveness of the sentence requested,” which was only intended to ” mask the weakness of the alleged charges .” In exchange for the money, according to the prosecution, Nicolas Sarkozy allegedly encouraged Libya’s return to the international stage and agreed to absolve the Guide’s brother-in-law, Abdallah Senoussi, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the attack on the UTA DC-10, which killed 170 people in 1989.

For more than a decade, Nicolas Sarkozy, whose wife and three sons attended the deliberations, has cried ” infamy ” and told journalists they should be ” ashamed ” to bring up the case. There is ” no evidence ,” ” nothing ,” ” not a single Libyan cent ,” ” not the beginning of any financing ,” insisted Nicolas Sarkozy during the trial, tired of ” justifying himself on evidence that does not exist! ” The Court of Cassation will also examine Nicolas Sarkozy’s appeal on October 8 in the “Bygmalion” case, concerning the financing of his 2012 presidential campaign, for which he was sentenced on appeal to one year in prison, six months of which are to be served.

See more news from Le Figaro

READ MORE FRENCH NEWS AT: 21st CENTURY WIRE FRENCH FILES

SUPPORT OUR INDEPENDENT MEDIA PLATFORM – BECOME A MEMBER @21WIRE.TV

VISIT OUR TELEGRAM CHANNEL

21st Century Wire is an alternative news agency designed to enlighten, inform and educate readers about world events which are not always covered in the mainstream media.

Source: https://21stcenturywire.com/2025/09/25/former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-sentenced-to-five-years-behind-bars/