Photos: YouTube Screenshots
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, was jailed for five years for criminal conspiracy over illegal campaign financing from Muammar Gaddafi, the late Libyan despot.
Sarkozy, 70, was in Paris criminal court on Thursday with Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, his wife, to hear judges declare him guilty in connection with claims that Gaddafi had paid millions of euros to fund his successful 2007 presidential election campaign.
He was allowed home after the verdict but will be summoned in a month’s time to be jailed, French media outlets reported. Some defendants given jail terms are allowed to remain free pending an appeal. However, the court denied Sarkozy any such clemency, deciding that he should be incarcerated while waiting for his legal challenge to be heard. Sarkozy was also fined €100,000 and barred from standing for office for five years.
Speaking after the verdict, Sarkozy repeated his long-standing claim that a largely left leaning judiciary was motivated by hatred of him because of the right-wing law and order policies he implemented while in power.
“I ask French people … to understand what has just happened. Hatred definitely has no limits. If they want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison but with my head held high…READ MORE
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