Paris shocker: Sarkozy hit with 5-year jail term in Libya cash case

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday after a Paris court found him guilty of criminal conspiracy tied to alleged Libyan funding of his 2007 campaign. He was acquitted of the heavier counts — passive corruption and illegal campaign financing — but the court said he will still serve time even as he files an appeal.

Sarkozy, 70, called the verdict “extremely serious for the rule of law” and vowed to fight it. “If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high,” he told reporters outside the courthouse, insisting the case is politically driven.

Prosecutors had argued that millions from the late Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi helped fuel Sarkozy’s run for the Élysée in exchange for efforts to rehabilitate the dictator’s standing in the West. Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy allowed close aides to reach out to Libyan officials seeking campaign cash — enough for a conspiracy conviction — but the court said there wasn’t sufficient proof he personally benefited from illegal financing. He was also fined €100,000.

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom as the sentence was read — an extraordinary moment in modern French politics. If he’s taken into custody in the coming days, Sarkozy would become the first former French head of state to head to prison.

The case has been simmering for years. A formal probe began in 2013 after Saif al-Islam Gaddafi alleged Sarkozy took “millions” from Tripoli. In 2014, Franco-Lebanese fixer Ziad Takieddine claimed he had written proof — and said payments totaling around €50 million continued after Sarkozy entered office. Among Sarkozy’s longtime allies also in the dock: former interior ministers Claude Guéant, found guilty of corruption among other charges, and Brice Hortefeux, convicted of criminal conspiracy.

The fallout reaches beyond the former president. Sarkozy’s wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud in connection with the Libya probe — allegations she denies.

Thursday’s ruling adds to a bruising legal record. In 2021, Sarkozy was convicted of trying to bribe a judge; an appeals court later allowed him to serve that sentence at home with an electronic tag. He’s also appealing a 2024 conviction for overspending during his failed 2012 re-election bid, which carried a one-year sentence, six months suspended.

Sarkozy maintains he’s innocent and says the Libya accusations rest on shaky testimony and political score-settling. The court, for its part, said the contacts with Libyan intermediaries ahead of the 2007 campaign crossed a clear legal line — and that was enough to send a former president toward a jail cell.

With input from BBC, CNN, and Reuters.