Overview

• The Paris criminal court convicted Nicolas Sarkozy only of association de malfaiteurs and acquitted him of corruption and illegal campaign financing.
• His sentence carries a deferred detention order with exécution provisoire, so incarceration will proceed in the coming weeks despite his appeal.
• The ruling will mark the first time under the Fifth Republic that a former French president is incarcerated.
• Judges cited covert 2005 meetings by Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux with Libyan official Abdallah Senoussi and applied a preparatory-acts doctrine to uphold the charge.
• Co-defendants received mixed outcomes—Guéant was sentenced to six years, Hortefeux to two, and treasurer Éric Woerth was acquitted—while Sarkozy proclaimed his innocence and said he will appeal as political figures criticize the use of exécution provisoire.