France's former president is found guilty of corruption, a Paris court found on Monday

Nicolas Sarkozy will spend one year in jail for corruption and influence peddling and a suspended sentence of two years.

It is thought that the former president will be unlikely to go to prison physically and that he will be offered the opportunity to be under home arrest with an electronic bracelet.

In France, he is the second former president to be convicted of corruption.

The 66-year-old retired politician was convicted for trying to illegally obtain information in 2014, with his lawyer, from a judge about unlawful political donations.

The court heard, through wiretapped conversations, how Mr Sarkozy had offered Judge Gilbert Azibert a job in return for some illegal information about the former French president's campaign in 2007 and its relation to Liliane Bettencourt, a French businesswoman and heiress.

Mr Sarkozy has dismissed the charges as he denies any wrongdoing and his lawyer revealed his attention to appeal.

The former president will attend another trial later this March on charges of illegal financing on another political campaign of his but back in 2012.