However, the Paris appeals court ruled that he could serve his time at home wearing a tag instead of going to jail.

In 2021 Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison – including two suspended – for trying to influence a judge in a separate case.

The 68-year-old was the first former French president to get a custodial sentence.

Following Wednesday’s ruling, Sarkozy’s lawyer said she would launch a new challenge with the Court of Cassation, one of France’s highest authorities.

“Nicolas Sarkozy is innocent,” lawyer Jacqueline Laffont said. “We will take this all the way.”

The former president has been convicted of attempting to obtain information from a senior judge in 2014 – after he had left office.

The case centred on phone conversations between Sarkozy and his lawyer at the time that were taped by police. Prosecutors convinced the court that Sarkozy offered the judge a prestigious job in Monaco in return for information about investigations into his 2007 campaign.

The judge and lawyer in question were also sentenced to three years in jail, two of them suspended.

It is one of several corruption cases involving Sarkozy, who denies any wrongdoing.

Earlier this month, prosecutors requested that he should face trial over allegations that the Libyan government illegally contributed to his 2007 presidential bid. But in France, investigating magistrates have the last word over whether a case should go to trial.

Sarkozy’s legal travails have put an end to his political career, but he retains lingering influence on the right.

His Republican party is in disarray and for many he remains a historic point of reference. Those who see him as the victim of a judicial establishment biased towards the left will stick by him regardless.

Nicolas Sarkozy served one five-year term as president, until 2012. He adopted tough anti-immigration policies and sought to reform France’s economy during a presidency overshadowed by the global financial crisis.

Critics nicknamed him “bling-bling”, seeing his leadership style as too brash, celebrity-driven and hyperactive for a role steeped in tradition and grandeur.

Wednesday’s ruling by the Cour de Cassation means that Sarkozy – who was in power from 2007 to 2012 – must now wear an electronic monitoring bracelet for a year.Sarkozy, 69, reacted by saying he was not prepared to accept “the profound injustice” and would now turn to the European Court of Human Rights to challenge the verdict.

He was originally sentenced to three years in jail in 2021, but two of those years were suspended and the third converted to electronic monitoring instead of prison.

Sarkozy was convicted of trying to bribe a judge in 2014, after he had left office, by suggesting he could secure a prestigious job for him in return for information about a separate case.In the 2021 ruling, Judge Christine Mée said the conservative politician “knew what [he] was doing was wrong”, adding that his actions and those of his lawyer had given the public “a very bad image of justice”.

The crimes were specified as influence-peddling and violation of professional secrecy.Speaking after Wednesday’s verdict by the Cour de Cassation, Sarkozy’s lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, said his client would comply with the conviction terms.

Sarkozy has now exhausted all his legal options in France, and his planned appeal to the European Court of Human Rights will not delay the verdict from being carried out.The 2021 conviction was a legal landmark for post-war France.

The only precedent was the trial of Sarkozy’s predecessor Jacques Chirac, who got a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for having arranged bogus jobs at Paris city hall for allies when he was Paris mayor. Chirac died in 2019.