Paris, France – A Paris court found French former President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption and influence peddling, sentencing him to one year imprisonment and a two-year suspended sentence.
The 66-year-old politician, who was president from 2007 to 2012, was convicted for trying to illegally obtain intelligence from a senior magistrate about a legal action in which he was involved.
The court said Sarkozy is entitled to request house arrest.
This is the first time in France’s modern history that a former president has been convicted of corruption.
Sarkozy’s co-defendants, his lawyer Thierry Herzog, 65, and magistrate Gilbert Azibert, 74, were also found guilty and received the same sentence as the politician.
The court found that Sarkozy and his co-defendants created a “pact of corruption,” based on “consistent and serious evidence”.
The court said the facts were “particularly serious” given the aggravating fact they were committed by a former president who used his position to help a magistrate who had served his personal interest.
Sarkozy had firmly denied all the allegations made against him during the 10 day trial. The corruption trial focused on phone conversations that happened in 2014.
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