Ex-French president Sarkozy handed 5-year prison term over Gaddafi money

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy Friday and handed a five year prison term by a Paris court in connec...

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of "criminal conspiracy” Friday and handed a five-year prison term by a Paris court in connection to an attempt to raise campaign funds from Libya’s late dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, 70, conspired with close aides to seek funds from the Libyan government for his 2007 presidential campaign, the court found. He has maintained his innocence and after the ruling said he had been targeted for political reasons.

The prison term, however much of it he winds up serving, is an unprecedented punishment for a modern French president. The date for his sentence to begin has yet to be decided, the court said. An appeals process would not stop Sarkozy from going to prison, the AP reported.

"If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison,” Sarkozy told reporters, surrounded by his lawyers and wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. "But with my head held high.”

"Those who hate me this much think it’s humiliating for me. What they humiliated today is France,” he said.