Sarkozy's conviction shows, at last, French presidents may no longer be above the law | Philippe Marlière

The corruption verdict reflects growing exasperation at heads of state's aloofness and lack of accountability

On Monday, a criminal court in Paris handed down its verdict in Nicolas Sarkozy's corruption trial. The former French president was sentenced to three years in jail - two of them suspended - for bribery and influence-peddling.

This is a legal landmark for the French judicial system for two main reasons. First, no former president had been sentenced to an actual prison sentence since France's collaborationist leader Marshal Petain in 1945. (This said, Sarkozy's one-year jail sentence will probably not be spent behind bars, but under house arrest with an electronic tag). The former president Jacques Chirac received a two-year suspended sentence in 2011 for embezzling public funds when he was Paris mayor.