PARIS, September 25. /TASS/. A Paris court sentenced former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in office from 2007 to 2012, to five years in prison for accepting Libyan funds to finance his 2007 election campaign, BFMTV reported, citing the court's decision.

The former president was also fined 100,000 euros.

In addition, Sarkozy was also found guilty of participating in a criminal conspiracy but acquitted of charges of concealing the embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption. This means that the court did not establish the fact of illegal financing of the 2007 election campaign.

The court also issued an order for Sarkozy to be taken into custody at a later date. Within a month, the former president will be summoned to appear before a prosecutor, who will determine the conditions of his sentence and the date of his detention.

The appeal will not suspend the court's initial decision. Sarkozy, who denies all charges in the case, has ten days to challenge the decision.

Information that former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi financed Sarkozy's campaign first emerged in March 2011 when Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's son, said in an interview with Euronews that Libyan authorities were demanding the return of funds provided to Sarkozy. The Elysee Palace denied that the funds had been provided. Sarkozy had previously called these allegations ridiculous.

In May 2012, eight days before the second round of the presidential election, the Mediapart news agency reported that Gaddafi had allocated 50 million euros to Sarkozy for election expenses. As proof, it published on its website a decree signed by Libyan General People's Committee for Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Secretary Musa Kusa, granting the funds. Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine, who died on September 23, had previously claimed that Gaddafi had transferred money to Sarkozy not only for his election campaign, but also for other purposes.