A French court imposed a one-year prison sentence while adding this could be served at home, on former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
This is after Sarkozy was found guilty of having illegally financed his 2012 re-election bid.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, had denied any wrongdoing, saying he was the victim of a witch-hunt by financial prosecutors who used excessive means to snoop on his affairs.
Retired from politics but still influential among conservatives, Sarkozy has 10 days to appeal the ruling.
Sarkozy is the second former president in modern France, after the late Jacques Chirac, to be convicted of corruption. BY THE STAR