Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to a year behind bars.
The politician, who led the country between 2007 and 2012, was convicted after appointing a post to a judge in Monaco in exchange for information on an investigation into his campaign finances.
Prosecutors had called for him to be jailed for up to four years if convicted.
During his testimony, Sarkozy said he was the victim of lies and denied ever committing an act of corruption.
He now has 10 days to appeal the ruling.
Prosecutors convinced judges that Sarkozy offered to secure a plum job in Monaco for judge Gilbert Azibert in return for confidential information about an inquiry into accusations that he had accepted illegal payments from L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt for his 2007 presidential campaign.
This came to light, they say, while they were wiretapping conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after Sarkozy left office, in relation to another investigation into alleged Libyan financing of that 2007 campaign.
It meant Sarkozy became the first President of France in recent history to be sentenced to actual cell time, rather than a suspended sentence.
The last French head of state to go to prison was Marshall Philippe Pétain, the wartime Nazi collaborator.
Sarkozy, wearing a dark suit and tie with a white shirt, bowed his head, but otherwise remained motionless as the verdict was read out.
He was specifically accused of trying to glean confidential information from a judge by using a so-called ‘burner’ mobile phone and a false name – ‘Paul Bismuth’.
Sarkozy had risked up to a decade in prison and a fine approaching the equivalent of £1million.
Also found guilty with him were his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, 65, and Gilbert Azibert, the 73-year-old retired judge who was said to have been bribed.
They were sentenced to the same punishment, and all are likely to be able to spend their prison time at home with an electronic tag.
France’s National Financial Prosecutors’ Office, the PNF, had accused the three defendants of working out ‘a corruption pact’ to advance their careers.
