Sarkozy sentenced to five years in jail – French media
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been handed a sentence of five years in jail, French media are reporting.
Remember: he is expected to immediately appeal it (10:59).
We will bring you more shortly.
Key events
Sarkozy jailed for five years – snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
It’s a truly historic moment. A former president of France will be going to prison – and it is reported in the French media that he will end up in custody even if he appeals.
Le Monde helpfully explains that, as part of the sentence, he will be “summoned within one month by the prosecutor’s office to be informed of his incarceration date,” but his appeal won’t suspend the sentence. That’s harsher than expected.
We will bring you more on this shortly.
Sarkozy sentenced to five years in jail – French media
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been handed a sentence of five years in jail, French media are reporting.
Remember: he is expected to immediately appeal it (10:59).
We will bring you more shortly.
Nato representatives set to join EU talks on drone wall on Friday
Nato representatives “at the technical level” are also expected to join tomorrow’s meeting on the EU’s “drone wall” initiative, an EU spokesperson confirmed.
Drone incursions to be discussed at informal EU summit next week
Recent drone incursions will be discussed “in some detail” by European Commission president and heads of states at the informal European Council meeting in Copenhagen next week, EU deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill has just said.
Defence spokesperson Thomas Regnier added that the issue will be also discussed during an initial meeting on the so-called “drone wall” on Friday, led by EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius with the seven frontline EU member states, joined by Denmark, Slovakia and Ukraine.
The works will focus on what “we will have to do to detect these incoming drones,” as “this is not super easy to do,” and then on how to “fight back” against them.
Norway seizes drone flying close to Oslo airport
Separately, Norwegian authorities have confirmed that they seized a drone that flew close to the restricted zone around Oslo airport last night, and are looking for its operator.
A criminal case has been opened, although the drone was reportedly intercepted before it posed any problems for air traffic at the airport, TV2 and VG reported.
The move comes after the airport had to close down on Tuesday for a few hours after a possible drone sighting.
Angelique Chrisafis
in Paris
Separately, Claude Guéant, who was director of Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign before being made Sarkozy’s chief-of-staff and then interior minister, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy and corruption.
Brice Hortefeux, another Sarkozy ally, who also served as interior minister, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy but acquitted of illegal campaign funding. Both he and Guéant are likely to appeal against their convictions.
Éric Woerth, another former minister who was Sarkozy’s head of campaign financing in 2007 and has since moved to Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, was acquitted.
Angelique Chrisafis
in Paris
Despite his convictions, Sarkozy continues to meet and be consulted by key figures on the right and centre. He recently met his former protege, the new prime minister Sébastien Lecornu, who has yet to form a new government after the last government collapsed in a no-confidence vote earlier this month.
Angelique Chrisafis
in Paris
The court had heard that in return for the money, the Libyan regime requested diplomatic, legal and business favours and it was understood that Sarkozy would rehabilitate Gaddafi’s international image.
The autocratic Libyan leader, whose brutal 41-year rule was marked by human rights abuses, had been isolated internationally over his regime’s connection to terrorism, including the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland in December 1988.
Members of Sarkozy’s entourage were accused by prosecutors of meeting members of Gaddafi’s regime in Libya in 2005, when Sarkozy was interior minister. Soon after becoming French president in 2007, Sarkozy then invited the Libyan leader for a lengthy state visit to Paris, setting up his Bedouin tent in gardens near the Élysée Palace. Sarkozy was the first western leader to welcome Gaddafi on a full state visit since the freeze in relations in the 1980s over his pariah status as a sponsor of state terrorism.
But in 2011, Sarkozy put France at the forefront of Nato-led airstrikes against Gaddafi’s troops that helped rebel fighters topple his regime. Gaddafi was captured by rebels in October 2011 and killed.
Sarkozy found guilty of criminal conspiracy in Libya trial, expected to appeal – first report
Angelique Chrisafis
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial in which he and aides were accused of making an alleged corruption pact with the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to receive funding for the 2007 French presidential election campaign.
But Sarkozy was acquitted of three other charges, including passive corruption and illegal campaign financing.
Sarkozy, who had denied all wrongdoing in court, is expected to immediately appeal.
Angelique Chrisafis
It was the biggest corruption trial faced by Sarkozy, 70, who was France’s rightwing president from 2007 to 2012.
He has already been convicted in two separate cases: one for corruption and influence peddling over illegal attempts to secure favours from a judge, and another for hiding illegal overspending in the 2012 presidential election that he lost to the Socialist candidate, François Hollande.
He has appealed against both convictions.
