French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of illegal financing in election campaign

PARIS - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to one year in prison for illegally financing his election campaign in 2012, a court in Paris announced on Thursday.

Sarkozy was found guilty of having spent almost twice the legal limit on his reelection bid. He has denied any involvement in the logistics of his campaign, but the court said he "continued the organization of meetings after having been warned in writing of the risk of exceeding the legal ceiling".

This new conviction came seven months after Sarkozy got a three-year prison sentence on charges of corruption and influence peddling in a separate trial.

In that trial, Sarkozy was found guilty of proposing a prestigious job in Monaco to a prosecutor in exchange for tip-offs on an inquiry into allegations that he had exploited the mental frailty of late L'Oreal heiress, Liliane Bettencourt, to enjoy donations in cash to finance his 2007 presidential campaign.

Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had denied wrongdoing in that case and appealed against the ruling.