Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was convicted by Paris judges and handed a five-year jail term for criminal conspiracy at a trial over allegations his 2007 winning campaign was covertly funded by millions of euros from the late Moammar Qaddafi’s regime.

The judges decided that any appeal by Sarkozy wouldn’t lift the execution of the sentence. Agence France-Presse said that he is due to be summoned within a month to learn the start of his jail term. The court nevertheless cleared him of more serious charges of embezzlement of Libyan funds, corruption and illegal campaign financing.

Paris judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy had let people in his entourage reach out to Libyan authorities “in order to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support in Libya” for his 2007 presidential

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