AP Paris

A Paris court sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to 5 years in prison and — in a major surprise — said he will be incarcerated even if he appeals, after finding him guilty Thursday in his trial for alleged illegal campaign financing by Libya.  The court said the date of his incarceration will be decided later, sparing the 70-year-old the humiliation of being marched out of the courtroom by police officers and going straight to jail.

It found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favours. But it cleared him of three other charges — passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of the embezzlement of public funds.

The court also found two of Sarkozy’s closest associates when he was president — former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux — guilty of criminal association but likewise acquitted them of some other charges. Overall, the ruling suggested the court believed the men conspired to seek Libyan funding for Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign but that judges weren’t convinced the conservative leader himself was directly involved in the funding effort or that any Libyan money ended up being used in his winning campaign. 

The chief judge, in an hours-long reading of the lengthy verdict, said Sarkozy allowed his close associates to reach out to Libyan authorities “to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing”. He stood as she read out the verdict.

But the court also said it couldn’t determine with certainty Libyan money ended up financing Sarkozy’s campaign. Still, under French law, a corrupt scheme can still be a crime even if money wasn’t paid or cannot be proven, the court explained. Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom, filled with reporters and mem­bers of the public. Sar­kozy sat in the front row of the defendant’s seats. His 3 adult sons were also in the room.