By Aurelien Breeden
Reporting from Paris
Sept. 25, 2025 – Updated 11:11 a.m. ET
A Parisian court delivered a historic verdict on Thursday, finding Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s former president, guilty of a criminal conspiracy. The charges stemmed from accusations that he sought illicit funding for his 2007 presidential campaign from the regime of the late Libyan strongman, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. The court sentenced Sarkozy to five years in prison and imposed a fine of approximately $117,000, a significant penalty for a former head of state.
Sarkozy, a conservative who served as France’s leader from 2007 to 2012, faces incarceration in the coming weeks, irrespective of any appeals. This marks a truly unprecedented and severe sentence for a former French president in contemporary history.
Appearing visibly somber, flanked by his legal team and his wife, Sarkozy defiantly told reporters, “If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head high.”
Throughout the three-month trial, Sarkozy vehemently denied any wrongdoing, subsequently labeling the court’s decision a “scandal” and confirming his intention to appeal. He argued that his detractors, by pursuing this verdict, believe they are humiliating him, but in reality, “those they have humiliated are France and its image.”
The pronouncement sent shockwaves through the courtroom, drawing gasps from attendees. This ruling is arguably the most devastating and severe blow to Sarkozy’s political legacy.
This isn’t Sarkozy’s first brush with conviction, nor even his first prison sentence. Since leaving office, he has already faced guilty verdicts for corruption, influence peddling, and campaign spending violations in separate cases. He was even stripped of France’s highest distinction, the Legion of Honor. However, he had, until now, remained free through various legal challenges. Despite no longer holding public office, he retains considerable political influence.
But on Thursday, it became a strong possibility that Sarkozy, now 70, would spend time behind bars, if not the full five years. This is a humiliating outcome for a man who built his career on a tough-on-crime image.
Since 1945, only one other former French head of state, Jacques Chirac, had been found guilty by a court of law. Chirac was convicted in 2011 of misusing public funds during his tenure as mayor of Paris. However, no former president has ever actually served jail time.
Prosecutors had painted Sarkozy as the central figure in a “Faustian corruption pact” with Libyan officials. They alleged that money was funneled to his 2007 campaign through various illicit means, including bank and cash transfers, offshore accounts, and sham transactions.
In exchange, prosecutors claimed, Libya sought economic deals, diplomatic recognition, and potential French assistance in rescinding an arrest warrant against Abdullah Senoussi, Colonel el-Qaddafi’s brother-in-law. Senoussi was wanted for his alleged involvement in the 1989 bombing of a French airliner that killed 171 people.
The court noted that at the time, the Qaddafi government was actively attempting to shed its pariah status. Concurrently, Sarkozy was launching his presidential bid without yet having secured his party’s full financial backing.
While the court concluded that Sarkozy and his aides conspired to solicit funds (which is sufficient for a conspiracy conviction under French law), it found insufficient evidence that such funds had actually reached the campaign’s coffers.
Nathalie Gavarino, the presiding judge, in delivering the court’s 400-page ruling, stated that Sarkozy allowed top aides acting under his authority and “in his name” to “obtain or try to obtain” funding from Libya.
Gavarino further explained that evidence suggested Libyan funds had indeed moved through France in 2006, but their exact path remained “opaque.” The court found no definitive proof that these specific funds were directly used in Sarkozy’s campaign. Furthermore, there was no evidence of a direct deal between Sarkozy and Colonel el-Qaddafi, who was killed during an uprising in 2011.
Consequently, Sarkozy was cleared of charges related to illegal campaign financing, concealing the misappropriation of public funds, and passive corruption (receiving money or favors).
However, Gavarino stressed that there was ample evidence that Sarkozy and several aides conspired in “corruption at the highest possible level” — an “extremely serious” act that she believes “undermines citizens’ confidence in those who represent them.”
She concluded, “These facts make it necessary to impose a prison sentence,” though the court imposed a slightly lighter sentence than the seven years prosecutors had requested.
Figure: Nicolas Sarkozy welcoming Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan strongman, in Paris in 2007. (Credit: Eric Feferberg/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images)
The verdict brings a sprawling, decade-long case to a close, marked by numerous twists and turns.
Sarkozy had vehemently denied any corruption pact, suggesting that the accusations were primarily driven by vengeful allies of Colonel el-Qaddafi. Under Sarkozy’s leadership, France played a significant role in the NATO-led airstrikes that ultimately led to Qaddafi’s overthrow and death at the hands of Libyan rebels.
Sarkozy’s legal team also highlighted that the investigation, which began in 2013, failed to uncover conclusive evidence that Libya had, in fact, sent millions, despite claims from some former Libyan officials.
This was not Sarkozy’s initial conviction. In 2021, he was found guilty of attempting to obtain information from a judge regarding another court case against him, a ruling later upheld on appeal. He served several months of a one-year sentence under house arrest with an electronic bracelet, which he was able to remove this year after turning 70, as French law allows convicts of that age to request conditional parole.
Also in 2021, he was convicted of illegally financing his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign, which far exceeded France’s spending limits. That particular case is still making its way through the appeals process.
Sandra Cossart, head of Sherpa, an advocacy group fighting corruption and a plaintiff in the case, described Thursday’s verdict as both severe and just. She pointed out that France has historically been lenient towards white-collar crime.
Ms. Cossart expressed hope, stating, “It’s a historic decision. I hope it marks the end of a certain way of doing politics.”