Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been handed a five-year prison sentence for criminal conspiracy in a landmark 2025 verdict — the first such conviction of a French head of state since World War II. The case, running for more than a decade, centres on allegations that Sarkozy received more than $55 million in illicit funding from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi for his successful 2007 campaign. Three former ministers were tried alongside him, with mixed outcomes. Sarkozy, who denies wrongdoing and calls the case politically motivated, has vowed to appeal. The scandal continues to cast a shadow over his legacy.