Sarkozy found guilty of illegal campaign financing, receives one- year sentence

Paris, SANA- A French court has sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy to a one-year prison sentence, which it said could be served at his home with electronic monitoring after being found guilty of illegally financing his 2012 presidential election campaign.

The investigation with Sarkozy revealed that he received funding for his electoral campaign from the former Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi, and the interrogation concluded that there was an “embarrassing reason” in exchange for campaign funding linked to Abdullah al-Senussi, Former Libyan intelligence chief, according to the AFP.

The prosecution says that Sarkozy was warned by accountants that he was going to exceed the official spending limit of 22.5 million euros, but that he insisted on holding more events to defend himself against his ultimately victorious socialist rival, Francois Hollande.

Ruaa al-Jazaeri