“For the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic, in a few weeks a former head of state will be sleeping in prison,” said Le Monde . Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy has left the country in a state of shock, and the former president incandescent with rage.

Funds from ‘bloodstained hands’

Outside a court in Paris last week, Sarkozy railed against the “limitless hatred” of the judges, who he claimed were pursuing a left-wing witch-hunt against him. But his punishment is commensurate with his “shameful” crime: seeking illegal presidential campaign funds from the “bloodstained hands” of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi .

The court found that in 2005, when Sarkozy was minister of the interior, his associates met Abdullah al-Senussi, Gaddafi’s brothe

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