Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was today found guilty of ‘criminal conspiracy’ in a plot involving some $50million in laundered cash from Colonel Gaddafi.

Judges sitting at the Paris Correctional Court ruled that the cash from the late Libyan dictator helped Sarkozy, now 70, with his electioneering.

It followed a three-month trial that ended in April, and which also involved 11 other defendants, including three of Sarkozy’s former ministers.

Sarkozy was acquitted of ‘receiving stolen public funds’ and ‘passive corruption’.

But he still faces up to five years in prison for conspiring with former ministers including ex-chief of staff, Claude Guéant, now 80, who was found guilty of ‘passive bribery, forgery, and influence peddling.’

Brice Hortefeux, 67 and another senior Sarkozy

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