Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty on Thursday of criminal conspiracy following a trial in which he was accused of accepting millions of euros in illegal payments from the late Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, between 2005 and 2007.The Paris Criminal Court sentenced him to five years in prison: it is the first time a former French president has received a prison sentence.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4France’s Sarkozy stripped of Legion of Honour, nation’s top awardlist 2 of 4Le Pen’s conviction in France: Career-ending or fuel for a new far right?list 3 of 4UK and France agree on need for new migration boat crossing ‘deterrent’list 4 of 4French ex-president Sarkozy gets 5-year jail term in Libya campaign caseend of listSarkozy, 70, was found not guilty of other charges, including illegal campaign financing and passive corruption.Sarkozy has always denied all the charges. He claims the charges against him were politically motivated by Gaddafi’s inner circle in revenge for his backing of the antigovernment uprising in Libya in 2011.Here is what we know.Who is Nicolas Sarkozy?Sarkozy is the right-wing, former president of France, who served from 2007 until 2012. In 2017, Sarkozy retired from active politics.From 2004 to 2007, he was the leader of the liberal-conservative Republicans party, then called the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). During that time, he was also minister of the interior in the government of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin under President Jacques Chirac.He won the 2007 presidential election with 53 percent of the vote, beating Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party (PS).He married model and singer Carla Bruni in 2008 following a widely publicised courtship while he was president.Since the end of his presidential term, Sarkozy has remained an influential figurehead for the political right in France. However, he has faced a litany of legal troubles, including several trials relating to various corruption charges and two convictions, and was stripped of France’s highest award, the Legion of Honour, this year.What was Sarkozy accused of?In his latest trial, which began in January this year, French prosecutors claimed that when he was interior minister, Sarkozy made a corrupt agreement to support Gaddafi’s government on the international stage in return for financing worth millions of euros to help pay for his presidential campaign.The agreement was alleged to have been carried out via a network of Libyan spies, a convicted terrorist, arms dealers and millions of euros shipped to Paris in suitcases.Overall, the charges he faced in his trial, which came after a 10-year anticorruption probe, were: