UPDATE - Former French President Sarkozy sentenced to 5 years in prison in Libyan campaign financing case

UPDATES WITH SARKOZY'S RESPONSE TO SENTENCE

By Beyza Binnur Donmez

GENEVA (AA) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced on Thursday to five years in prison for conspiracy in a case involving Libyan financing of his 2007 election campaign, according to media reports.

He is expected to be summoned by prosecutors within one month to inform him when he will begin serving his sentence.

The court found Sarkozy, who denied all wrongdoing, guilty of criminal conspiracy but cleared him of passive corruption and other illegal financing charges, the reports said.

Speaking to reporters following the sentencing announcement, Sarkozy said he will comply with the judicial summons.

"If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high.”

Describing the decision as "injustice," he vowed to appeal, saying: “I will fight until my last breath to prove my complete innocence."

Sarkozy faced charges including illegal campaign financing, concealment of embezzled public funds, and conspiracy.​

The prosecution characterized an alleged 2005 agreement between Sarkozy, then-interior minister, and then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi – a pariah in the West – as a "pact of corruption inconceivable, unheard of, indecent."

Sarkozy was elected France’s president in 2007 and served at the post until 2012.