Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption yesterday and handed a three-year prison sentence. A court in Paris convicted him of trying to illegally influence a judge while in office.
Two of the three years are suspended, which means it is unlikely Sarkozy will physically go to prison. He is likely to appeal and remains free.
Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012 and remains a favourite for many on the right.
The conviction is likely to undermine any attempted comeback to frontline politics, an ambition he has denied. Some support him for the 2022 presidential elections.
Sarkozy was accused of offering to help a judge obtain a senior job in Monaco in exchange for putting pressure on an inquiry into his campaign finances.
The graft and influence-peddling charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years and a fine of one million euros.
Prosecutors said Sarkozy tried to bribe judge Gilbert Azibert over an inquiry into claims that he had received illicit payments from L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt during his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
Azibert, who was a senior adviser at France’s highest appeals court at the time, never got the job in Monaco.
Sarkozy’s lawyers argued this pointed to the absence of corruption, but prosecutors said French law makes no distinction between a successful corruption attempt and a failed one.
On 17 March Sarkozy is scheduled to appear in court accused of fraudulently overspending for his failed 2012 reelection bid.
He is also alleged to have received millions of euros from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for his 2007 election campaign.
In January prosecutors opened another probe into alleged influence-peddling by Sarkozy over his advisory activities in Russia.
(Photograph: Kiran Ridley/Getty Images)