Paris, Sep 25 (AP) A Paris court on Thursday sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison after finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 campaign with funds from Libya, a verdict that the still-influential conservative leader denounced as “a scandal.” The historic ruling made Sarkozy the first former president of modern France sentenced to actual time behind bars. In a major surprise, the court ruled that the 70-year-old will be incarcerated despite his intention to appeal. It said his imprisonment would start at a date yet to be fixed, sparing the former head of state the humiliation of being led out of the packed courtroom by police.

The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007, when he served as interior minister, to finance his winning presidential campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favours. It cleared him of three other charges including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.

Sarkozy denounced the ruling as a humiliation for the country.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison. But with my head held high. I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal," he said with his wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, at his side.

“I ask the French people — whether they voted for me or not, whether they support me or not — to grasp what has just happened. Hatred truly knows no bounds," he said.

"Should I appear in handcuffs before the Court of Appeal? Those who hate me this much, think it's humiliating for me. What they humiliated today is France.” With Sarkozy standing in front of her, chief judge Nathalie Gavarino said in sentencing him that “the goal of the criminal conspiracy was to give you an advantage in the electoral campaign” and “to prepare an act of corruption at the highest possible level in the event that you were elected President of the Republic.” The facts were “exceptionally serious” and “capable of undermining citizens' trust in public institutions,” with Sarkozy having used his position as interior minister “to prepare an act of corruption at the highest level," the judge said.

Sarkozy described the financing plot as simply “an idea.” “I am being convicted for having supposedly allowed two of my staff members to go ahead with the idea — the idea — of illegal financing for my campaign," he said.

The court found that two of Sarkozy's closest associates when he was president -- former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux — were guilty of criminal association, but likewise acquitted them of some other charges. The court sentenced Hortefeux to two years imprisonment, but said time can be served outside prison with an electronic monitoring bracelet. Guéant was handed a six-year prison term but wasn't incarcerated immediately for health reasons.

The court said both Guéant and Hortefeux held secret meetings in 2005 with Abdullah al-Senoussi, the brother-in-law and intelligence chief of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Gadhafi was toppled and killed in an uprising in 2011, ending his four-decade rule of the North African country. Al-Senoussi is considered the mastermind of attacks on a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and a French airliner over Niger the following year — causing hundreds of deaths. In 2003, Libya took responsibility for both plane bombings.

The Paris court described the contacts as a “corruption pact.” It said favors offered to Libya by Sarkozy and associates included talks about Al-Senoussi's judicial fate as well as financing for nuclear power in Libya and continued French efforts to help Libya shed its status as a pariah state under Gadhafi.

The ruling from the panel of three judges said Sarkozy allowed his associates to reach out to Libyan authorities “to obtain or try to obtain financial support." But the court said it wasn't able to determine with certainty that Libyan money ended up financing Sarkozy's campaign. The court explained that under French law, a corrupt scheme can still be a crime even if money wasn't paid or cannot be proven.

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 but lost his bid for reelection in 2012, denied all wrongdoing during a three-month trial earlier this year.

Despite multiple legal scandals that have clouded his presidential legacy, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in right-wing politics in France and in entertainment circles, by virtue of his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.

Alleged Libya financing The accusations trace their roots to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi said the Libyan state had secretly funnelled millions of euros into Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.

In 2012, the French investigative outlet Mediapart published what it said was a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. Sarkozy denounced the document as a forgery and sued for defamation. The court ruled Thursday that it “now appears most likely that this document is a forgery." Investigators also looked into a series of trips to Libya made by people close to Sarkozy when he served as interior minister, including his chief of staff.

In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that he had delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry under Sarkozy. He later retracted his statement.

That reversal is now the focus of a separate investigation into possible witness tampering. Both Sarkozy and his wife were handed preliminary charges for involvement in alleged efforts to pressure Takieddine. That case has not gone to trial yet.

Takieddine, who was one of the co-defendants, died on Tuesday in Beirut. He was 75. He had fled to Lebanon in 2020 and did not attend the trial.

Sarkozy denounced a plot' The trial shed light on France's back-channel talks with Libya in the 2000s, when Gadhafi was seeking to restore diplomatic ties with the West.

During the trial, Sarkozy denounced the allegations as a “plot” cooked up by “liars and crooks” including the “Gadhafi clan.” He suggested they were retaliation for his call — once installed as France's president — for Gadhafi's removal. He was one of the first Western leaders to push for military intervention in Libya in 2011, when pro-democracy protests swept the Arab world.

“What credibility can be given to such statements marked by the seal of vengeance?” Sarkozy said during the trial.

Stripped of the Legion of Honour In June, Sarkozy was stripped of his Legion of Honour medal — France's highest award — after his conviction in a separate case.

Earlier, he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for trying to bribe a magistrate in 2014 in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated.

Sarkozy was sentenced to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for one year. He was granted a conditional release in May due to his age, which allowed him to remove the electronic tag after just over three months.

In another case, Sarkozy was convicted last year of illegal campaign financing in his failed 2012 reelection bid. He was accused of having spent almost twice the maximum legal amount and was sentenced to a year in prison, of which six months were suspended.

Sarkozy has appealed that verdict to the highest Court of Cassation, and that appeal is pending. (AP) RD RD