A Paris court has convicted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy of forming a criminal association in connection with the so-called Libyan affairs case. However, he was acquitted of charges including passive bribery, misappropriation of Libyan state funds and illegal campaign financing, according to a court statement released Thursday.
The sentencing remains undetermined and the full pronouncement of the judgment is expected to take several hours. Prosecutors had alleged that Sarkozy and his advisors entered into an agreement with then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally finance Sarkozy’s successful presidential campaign two years later. They had requested a seven-year prison sentence for the former president.
Sarkozy’s legal team is expected to appeal the verdict and an immediate custodial sentence is unlikely. This marks the latest in a series of legal proceedings for Sarkozy; he previously received a three-year sentence – two of which were suspended – for corruption and abuse of power in a separate case.