Judge Nathalie Gavarino said Sarkozy had allowed close aides to contact Libyan officials with a view to obtaining financial support for his campaign.<\/p>\n
But the court ruled that there was not enough evidence to find Sarkozy was the beneficiary of the illegal campaign financing.<\/p>\n
He is expected to be sentenced later today.<\/p>\n
The investigation was opened in 2013, two years after Saif al-Islam, son of the then-Libyan leader, first accused Sarkozy of taking millions of his father’s money for campaign funding.<\/p>\n
The following year, Lebanese businessman Ziad Takieddine – who for a long time acted as a middleman between France and the Middle East – said he had written proof that Sarkozy’s campaign bid was “abundantly” financed by Tripoli, and that the \u20ac50m (\u00a343m) worth of payments continued after he became president.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy’s wife, Italian-born former supermodel and singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, was charged last year with hiding evidence linked to the Gaddafi case<\/a> and associating with wrongdoers to commit fraud, both of which she denies.<\/p>\n Since losing his re-election bid in 2012, Sarkozy has been targeted by several criminal investigations.<\/p>\n