France’s Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of campaign fraud

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been handed a one-year prison sentence by a Paris court after being found guilty of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 re-election bid.

Sarkozy, 66, is unlikely to go to jail.

He is expected to appeal against the sentence, a move that will in effect suspend it, and the judge said on Thursday he could serve the sentence at home with an electronic tag.

It was the second guilty verdict this year for Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012 and retains influence among conservatives despite falling from grace over his legal problems.

His conservative party, the prosecutors said, spent nearly double the 22.5 million euros ($27 million) allowed under electoral law on extravagant campaign rallies and then hired a friendly public relations agency to hide the cost.

Sarkozy had denied wrongdoing.

He told the court in June that he had not been involved in the logistics of his campaign for a second term as president nor in how money was spent during the election run-up.

But the court said he was made aware of the overspending, that he did not act on it, and that it was not necessary for him to approve each individual spending to be responsible.

Sarkozy was found guilty in a separate trial in March of trying to bribe a judge and peddle influence in order to obtain confidential information on a judicial inquiry.

He also denied any wrongdoing in that case.

The former president was sentenced to three years in jail in that trial – two of which were suspended – but has not actually spent time in prison yet, while his appeal is pending.