Nicolas Sarkozy has been jailed for five years for conspiring to illegally finance his 2007 presidential campaign using funds from Muammar Gaddafi, the late Libyan dictator.

Prosecutors said Sarkozy, 70, who led the country from 2007 to 2012, made a “corruption pact” with the Libyan state for millions of euros in exchange for diplomatic favours to help Gaddafi combat his pariah reputation in the West.

Finding him guilty of criminal conspiracy, the court in Paris sentenced him to five years in prison on Thursday, making him the first former French president in history to be jailed.

He was also ordered to pay a 100,000 euro fine.

In her ruling, Nathalie Gavarino, the judge, said Sarkozy had allowed his top aides, who “acted in his name”, to “obtain or try to obtain” the illegal funding f

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