Former France president Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Thursday to 5 years in prison for criminal association in a lawsuit linked to the alleged Libyan funding of his 2007 presidential campaign.
In addition to the sentence, he will have to pay a fine of € 100,000 (about R $ 624 thousand) and will be ineligible for five years.
Leaving court in Paris, Sarkozy classified the decision as “unfair” and a “scandal.” “If they really want to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head up. I will fight until my last breath to prove my complete innocence,” he said. According to the former president, the conviction was based on a “counterfeit document.”
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The lawsuit, led by Judge Nathalie Gavarino, involves accusations that Sarkozy and Allies have received funds from the Muammar Gaddafi regime in exchange for political and diplomatic favors.
Although acquitted of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and misuse of public funds, the former president was responsible for joining a “corruption pact” established in 2005.
Among the coacused, Claude Guéant, former campaign director and former interior minister, received a sentence of six years in prison. Already Éric Woerth, former minister and responsible for financing the 2007 campaign, was acquitted.
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Sarkozy already accumulates two other convictions: one for corruption and influence trafficking in an attempt to obtain favors from a judge, and another for concealing illegal spending in the 2012 campaign, lost to François Hollande. In both cases, he resorted unsuccessfully and even wears an electronic anklet.
The former president, who has lost the legion of honor, greater French award, must be called within one month to start serving the sentence. Despite the appeal, the conviction has no suspensive effect.
