The dramatic decision to send former president Nicolas Sarkozy to prison for criminal conspiracy has laid bare France's stark political divisions, with the move cheered by the left but slammed by the ascendant right.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy says he will sleep in prison with his "head held high" after being sentenced to five years in jail for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to find funding for his 2007 campaign from Libya's then-leader Moamer Kadhadi.

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy involving campaign fund raising from Libya. Despite the guilty verdict, he maintains his innocence,

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy was on Thursday set to become France's first postwar leader to go to prison after a court jailed him for five years over a scheme for