Former French President Sarkozy sentenced to five years in Gaddafi money case

A Paris criminal court has found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of criminal conspiracy for receiving illegal campaign funding in 2007 from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, reports BFM TV.

He was acquitted on other charges of concealing embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption.

Prosecutors claimed that in 2005, when Sarkozy was French Interior Minister, he made a deal with Gaddafi to receive money in exchange for supporting the Libyan government in the international arena.

The key witness in the case was businessman Ziad Takieddin, who said that in 2006-2007 he personally helped transport bags of cash from Libya for Sarkozy, but later recanted his statement. He died on Tuesday of a heart attack in Beirut, where he was hiding from a French arrest warrant .

Along with Sarkozy, 11 other people were indicted, including his former associate Claude Guéant and former campaign finance minister Eric Vert. All of them denied the charges. Vert and two other defendants were acquitted by the court.

This is the third conviction of the 70-year-old former president. Previously, he was found guilty of corruption and illegal campaign financing. For one of these convictions, Sarkozy was stripped of France's highest state award, the Legion of Honor.

UPDATED at 14:10. After reading the verdict, the judge announced that she had sentenced Sarkozy to five years in prison, but with a suspended sentence.

Prosecutors demanded seven years in prison for the former president, but Sarkozy will have the opportunity to appeal.

• Gaddafi was counting on Sarkozy's help in restoring Libya's international image after being accused of involvement in terrorist attacks, including the 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie, Scotland.
• However, later, in 2011, it was France under Sarkozy's leadership that became one of the main initiators of NATO's military operation against the Gaddafi regime during the Arab Spring, which led to the overthrow and death of the Libyan dictator.