A Paris court on Thursday convicted former French president Nicolas Sarkozy on charges of criminal conspiracy but acquitted him of corruption and accepting illegal campaign financing in his trial into accusations late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi helped fund his victorious 2007 presidential run.

The trial is the latest in a string of legal troubles for the right-wing ex-leader, 70, who denies the charges.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, has already been convicted in two separate cases and stripped of France's highest honour.

Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy,as a serving minister and party leader at the time, had "allowed his close collaborators and political supporters over whom he had authority and who acted in his name", to approach the Libyan authorities "in order

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