Analysis Verdict is a milestone in France's fight against corruption

When a Paris court handed Nicolas Sarkozy a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi yesterday, it was a historic moment for France.

- Angelique Chrisafis

The rightwing Sarkozy, who served as French president from 2007 to 2012, was known in office not just for his hard line on immigration and national identity but for championing harsher sentencing for delinquents. He is now expected to enter jail within a matter of months.

It is a spectacular downfall and a turning point in France’s long-running struggle to deal with corruption and criminal allegations against politicians.

Sarkozy’s sentence is the first time in modern French history that a former president has been ordered to turn up at the prison gates and serve time inside.

Criminal investigations and trials of French politicians are not new, and voters’ trust in elected officials’ integrity has been in steady decline, but judges in Sarkozy’s trial appeared to want to send a message that politicians would not get an easy ride.