For the first time in the history of the Republic, a former president behind bars: the Paris court on Thursday sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison, with imminent incarceration, for having “allowed his associates” to solicit Libya under Muammar Gaddafi — a heavy sentence which the former president denounced as driven by “hatred.”

With a cold anger, his features drawn, the sixth president of the French Fifth Republic (2007–2012) once again asserted his “innocence” and immediately announced, upon leaving the courtroom, his intention to appeal.