President from 2007 to 2012, he was found guilty of illegally trying to obtain information from a senior magistrate in 2014 about an ongoing investigation into his campaign finances.
The judge said Sarkozy did not need to be jailed. He was able to serve the sentence by wearing an electronic bracelet at home.
The 66-year-old is the first president to be sentenced to prison in the modern history of France.
The Paris prosecutor has demanded two years in prison and a two-year suspended sentence for Sarkozy and his co-accused, his lawyer Thierry Herzog and former magistrate Gilbert Azibert.
Herzog and Azibert were convicted and sentenced to prison.
After lengthy investigation and legal entanglement, the trial began late last year. The judge handed down Sarkozy’s sentence Monday afternoon in front of a full courtroom.
Called the ‘eavesdropping case’, it started in 2013 when investigators seized phones from Sarkozy and his lawyer Herzog, in connection with an investigation against Sarkozy.
They have discovered that the two men promised senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert a prestigious position in Monaco, in exchange for information on an ongoing investigation into allegations that Sarkozy made illegal payments to L’Oreal heir Liliane Bettencourt for his successful presidential campaign in 2007.
Sarkozy faces other charges. In just over two weeks, he will be tried again for violating campaign funding rules during his failed 2012 re-election series, hiding the real cost of his campaign with a friendly liaison firm.
In a separate case, French prosecutors are investigating alleged illegal campaign funding from Libya. Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has allegedly provided millions of euros to Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign, which was sent to Paris in suitcases.
In 2011, former president Jacques Chirac was convicted of misappropriating public funds and was sentenced to two years in prison for employing fictitious officials when he was mayor of Paris in the early 1990s.
The last French head of state to be sentenced to prison was Marshal Philippe Pétain in 1945 – for treason after collaborating with the Nazis.