Overview

• Judges found Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of criminal association for allowing close aides to seek financial support from Muammar Gheddafi’s regime between 2005 and 2007.
• He received a five-year prison sentence and a €100,000 fine, with an incarceration order to be formally notified by financial prosecutors in the coming days.
• The court said the evidence did not demonstrate that Libyan funds were ultimately paid into or used by his 2007 presidential bid.
• Former top aides Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux were also convicted, including counts of passive corruption and criminal association, while other figures such as Eric Woerth were cleared.
• Sarkozy declared he will appeal and maintains his innocence, as the case’s key intermediary Ziad Takieddine died in Beirut shortly before the verdict.