Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to three years for corruption . .

A former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been sentenced to three years in prison after he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling on Monday afternoon, March 1.

Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, was said to have forged a “corruption pact” with his lawyer and a senior magistrate, BBC News reports.

Judges said there was “serious evidence” of collaboration between the three men to break the law. The court had heard how Sarkozy instructed his lawyer, Thierry Herzog, to offer the magistrate a cushy job on the Côte d’Azur in return for information on a separate investigation centred on the rightwing politician.

This came to light, they said, while they were wire-tapping conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer Thierry Herzog after Sarkozy left office, in relation to another investigation into alleged Libyan financing of the same campaign. ?: GettyImages