Nicolas Sarkozy, Former President of France, Sentenced to 5 Years in Jail

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in jail, according to multiple reports from the BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian and more. 

Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy after being accused of using illegal funds obtained by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 campaign. 

Sarkozy, who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012, allegedly promised Gaddafi that he would help improve his reputation among Western countries in exchange for financial backing of millions of euros. 

According to the BBC, the ruling means that Sarkozy will spend time in jail even if he appeals the verdict. He was also ordered to pay a fine of €100,000 (around $117,000). 

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French outlet Le Monde reports that Sarkozy will be “summoned within one month by the prosecutor’s office to be informed of his incarceration date,” and an appeal won’t suspend his sentence. 

Judge Nathalie Gavarino ruled that Sarkozy had allowed close aides to reach out to Libyan officials in order to obtain campaign finances, but the court ruled that there was not enough evidence to confirm that Sarkozy was the beneficiary of these efforts. 

Sarkozy called the verdict an “incredible injustice,” adding, “If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high.”

Noting that he was cleared of three of the four charges, Sarkozy added, “Those who hate me so much think they can humiliate me. What they have humiliated today is France, the image of France.”

Sarkozy will be the first former French president to go to jail. According to the BBC, there was a “shocked intake of breath in court when the judge read out her sentence.” 

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the Italian supermodel and singer and Sarkozy’s wife, was previously charged with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case and associating with others to commit fraud. She has denied both allegations. 

In 2012, Sarkozy lost his re-election bid to François Hollande, who was president from 2012 to 2017, when current president Emmanuel Macron took over. 

Since 2012, Sarkozy has been the subject of multiple criminal investigations.

In February 2024, he was found guilty of overspending on his 2012 campaign and hiring a PR firm to cover it up, a decision he has appealed. And in 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge, making him the first former French president to get a custodial sentence, according to the BBC.