Former French President Sarkozy found guilty on key charge, acquitted of others in Libya case

A Paris court sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to 5 years in prison and — in a major surprise — said he’ll be incarcerated even if he appeals, after finding him guilty Thursday in his trial for alleged illegal campaign financing by Libya

A Paris court sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to 5 years in prison and — in a major surprise — said he’ll 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.

The court 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 favors. But it cleared him of three other charges -- including 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 that the court believed that the men conspired to seek Libyan funding for Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign but that judges weren’t convinced that the conservative leader himself was directly involved in the funding effort or that any Libyan money ended up being used in his winning campaign.