Sarkozy gets five years in jail for plot over £37m laundered Gaddafi cash

NICOLAS Sarkozy was yesterday jailed for five years for a criminal conspiracy over $50million (£37m) in laundered cash from Colonel Gaddafi.

- By Peter Allen in Paris

Nicolas Sarkozy and Carla Bruni yesterday

The Paris Correctional Court ruled the money from the late Libyan dictator helped the former French president, 70, with his electioneering.

The sentence was the maximum for criminal conspiracy - Sarkozy was also fined £87,000 and banned from standing for public office for five years. The conservative politician had already been convicted of trying to bribe a judge and illegal campaign funding. His latest three-month trial put Sarkozy alongside former senior aides including his onetime chief of staff Claude Gueant, 80.

Judge Nathalie Gavarino called Sarkozy a serial offender guilty of having "allowed his close associates to act with a view to obtaining financial support from the Libyan regime".