A Paris court sentenced former French president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison on Thursday after finding him guilty on a key charge in his trial for alleged illegal campaign financing by the government of then-Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

The court found Sarkozy, 70, guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007 to finance his campaign with funds from Libya in exchange for diplomatic favours. But it cleared him of three other charges — including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealment of the embezzlement of public funds.

The court also found two of Sarkozy's closest associates when he was president — former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux — guilty of criminal association but likewise acquitted them of some other charges.

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