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A Paris court has sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison for “criminal conspiracy,” finding he was willing to accept funds from Libya for his 2007 presidential campaign in exchange for diplomatic favors.
The Paris Criminal Court acquitted Sarkozy on other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing, citing insufficient evidence that he ever used the alleged Libyan funds in his campaign. He was also fined €100,000 and barred from running for public office for five years.
Thursday’s landmark verdict makes Sarkozy the first French president in modern history to face actual prison time rather than a suspended sentence.
Sandra Cossart, director of Sherpa - the anti-corruption group that had filed the lawsuit - told OCCRP the decision “clearly demonstrates that those involved in financial and corrupt schemes can be punished. Since 2013, Sherpa has been calling for greater recognition of the victims of these schemes — in this case, the Libyan people, who have been deprived of resources.
The 70-year-old former president has called the verdict a “scandalous injustice” and denied the charges, arguing the case lacks evidence, according to The Guardian. “If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high,” the outlet quoted him as saying.
Sarkozy’s lawyers are expected to appeal, but the ruling still allows for his imprisonment. The date of his incarceration will be determined later.
Two of Sarkozy’s closest associates, both former ministers, were also found guilty of criminal association.
The trial, which opened on Jan. 6, 2025, centered on allegations that Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, accepted €50 million ($58.6 million) from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to finance his campaign in exchange for helping rehabilitate Gaddafi’s image in the West.
In a joint statement, the three civil parties in the so-called “Libyan financing” trial — Sherpa, Anticor and Transparency International France — welcomed the “historic judgment that punishes acts of exceptional gravity, undermining citizens’ trust in those who represent them.”
In 2013, Sherpa filed suit against Sarkozy after investigative outlet Mediapart reported on a leaked Libyan intelligence memo referencing a €50 million funding deal. Sarkozy dismissed the document as a forgery — a claim the court supported Thursday, ruling that the memo could indeed have been fabricated.
In 2014, France24 reported that Gaddafi told the outlet Sarkozy had sought financial support while serving as interior minister, though he gave no details about the amount or any transactions.
Sarkozy’s legal troubles have stretched over the past decade. In 2018, he was detained over allegations of illegal campaign financing and corruption. In 2021, he was sentenced to one year in prison for illegal financing of his 2012 re-election bid, and last year received another one-year term for campaign finance violations, six months of which were suspended.
