Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison for secretly working with Libya’s late autocratic leader Muammar Gaddafi to obtain illegal funds for his 2007 election campaign.
A Paris court cleared him of other charges, including corruption and illegal campaign financing, but ordered him to pay a fine of $117,000.
The case began in 2013 after Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, claimed Sarkozy’s campaign had been bankrolled with millions from Libya.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, insists the trial was politically motivated. If jailed, he would become the first former French leader to serve prison time.