French court finds former president Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of corruption

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of trying to bribe a judge and of influence peddling and has been sentenced to three years in jail, with two years suspended.

Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had denied any wrongdoing, and said he was the victim of a witch-hunt by financial prosecutors who used excessive means to snoop on his affairs.

Taking into account the two years suspended, the sentence of one year jail means it is unlikely Sarkozy will physically go to prison, a punishment that in France usually applies to jail terms of above two years.

He is the second former president in modern France, after the late Jacques Chirac, to be convicted of corruption.

Prosecutors persuaded the judges that Sarkozy…