A Paris court on Thursday convicted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy in a long-running probe into his 2007 campaign's alleged ties to Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, slapping him with a five-year prison sentence that takes effect even if appealed, though he walked free on charges of corruption and illegal financing.

The three-month trial zeroed in on claims that Sarkozy's inner circle sought millions from Gaddafi's regime to fuel his successful bid, but judges cleared him of direct involvement or actual fund use, ruling instead that he greenlit outreach for support.

Sarkozy, 70, fired back outside the courthouse, branding the verdict a "scandal" and "injustice" driven by "hatred," vowing an appeal to the hilt: "If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high."

Flanked by wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and his sons, he decried the ruling as a blow to faith in France's judiciary. Co-defendants like ex-ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux drew similar conspiracy convictions but acquittals on heavier counts, while key witness Ziad Takieddine—whose suitcase-cash tales unraveled—passed away Tuesday in Beirut without testifying, his flip-flop now under separate scrutiny for tampering.

The case peeled back layers on 2000s Franco-Libyan diplomacy, spotlighting Sarkozy aides' Tripoli jaunts as interior minister, though a purported £43.7 million deal memo was dismissed as a fake. Sarkozy's legal woes stack up: a 2021 bribery conviction cost him his Legion of Honour and earned a year on an electronic tag (half suspended), while a 2024 overspend ruling in his 2012 reelection bid netted another year (six months off), both under appeal.

Despite the hits, he holds sway in France's right-wing circles, having dismissed the Libya affair as payback for pushing Gaddafi's 2011 ouster. As the appeals clock ticks—the sentence's start date TBD—the outcome could ripple through Sarkozy's legacy and French politics, testing the balance between accountability and alleged vendettas in high-stakes probes.