Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday after being found guilty of criminal conspiracy in a trial over alleged illegal campaign financing from Libya.

In a major twist, the court said Sarkozy would have to serve the sentence even if he appeals. The court, however, did not immediately send the 70-year-old to jail.

Officials said the date of his incarceration will be decided later, sparing him the immediate humiliation of being marched out of the courtroom.

Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal association in a plot from 2005 to 2007 aimed at securing Libyan funding for his 2007 campaign in exchange for diplomatic favours.

The court cleared him of three other charges, including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, and concealment of embezzled public funds.

Two of Sarkozy’s closest associates when he was president, former ministers Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, were also found guilty of criminal association but were acquitted of other charges.

The ruling suggested that while the court believed the men conspired to seek Libyan funds, it could not conclusively prove that Sarkozy himself was directly involved or that Libyan money was actually used in his campaign.

The chief judge, during an hours-long reading of the verdict, said Sarkozy “allowed his close associates to reach out to Libyan authorities ‘to obtain or try to obtain financial support in Libya for the purpose of securing campaign financing.’”

Sarkozy stood as the verdict was read.

The court noted that it could not determine with certainty whether Libyan money financed Sarkozy’s campaign, but under French law, a corrupt scheme can be a crime even if the funds were never paid or cannot be proven.

Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was present in the courtroom along with his three adult sons. He denied all wrongdoing during the three-month trial, which involved 11 co-defendants, including three former ministers.

Alleged Libya financing

The accusations date back to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi himself claimed that the Libyan state had secretly provided millions of euros to Sarkozy’s campaign.

In 2012, investigative outlet Mediapart published a Libyan intelligence memo referencing a 50 million-euro funding agreement. Sarkozy dismissed the document as a forgery and sued for defamation.

On Thursday, the court said it “now appears most likely that this document is a forgery.” Investigators also examined trips to Libya made by people close to Sarkozy when he was interior minister, including his chief of staff.

In 2016, Franco-Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine told Mediapart that he had delivered suitcases filled with cash from Tripoli to the French Interior Ministry. He later retracted his statement.

That reversal is now part of a separate investigation into potential witness tampering. Prosecutors argued that Sarkozy had knowingly benefited from a “corruption pact” with Gadhafi’s government.

Libya’s long-time dictator was toppled in 2011 during the Arab Spring. Sarkozy, throughout the trial, called the allegations politically motivated.

He described the claims as a “plot” staged by “liars and crooks,” including the “Gadhafi clan,” suggesting they were retaliation for his push as president for Gadhafi’s removal.

He asked during the trial, “What credibility can be given to such statements marked by the seal of vengeance?”

Past legal troubles

This is not Sarkozy’s first conviction. In June, he was stripped of the Legion of Honour medal after being found guilty of corruption and influence peddling in a separate case in 2014.

He was sentenced to one year in jail with an electronic monitoring bracelet and was granted conditional release due to his age.

Last year, Sarkozy was also convicted of illegal campaign financing for his failed 2012 reelection bid, accused of spending nearly twice the legal limit. He denied the charges and has appealed that verdict.

After Thursday’s ruling, Sarkozy told reporters, “If they absolutely want me to sleep in jail, I will sleep in jail, but with my head held high.”