Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012) has been sentenced to five years in prison for forming a criminal organization, after receiving funding from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 presidential campaign.
In return, he was expected to provide the Libyan regime with diplomatic, legal, and business favors, and to rehabilitate Gaddafi’s image in the West.
The Libyan leader had been internationally isolated due to his regime’s links to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in December 1988. Sarkozy was also ordered to pay €100,000. Even if he appeals, he will still serve time in prison.
This marks the first time in modern French history that a head of state has been sentenced to prison.
As he left the courtroom, Sarkozy stated: “What happened today… is extremely serious with regard to the rule of law and the trust one can have in the judicial system. If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high”.
Prosecutors told the court that Sarkozy and his aides devised a “corruption pact” with Gaddafi and the Libyan regime in 2005 to illegally finance Sarkozy’s successful presidential campaign two years later.
They met with members of Gaddafi’s regime in Libya in 2005, when Sarkozy was serving as interior minister. Shortly after taking office as president in 2007, Sarkozy invited the Libyan leader to Paris for an official visit.
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