French ex-president Sarkozy begins jail sentence

So is this a criminal president receiving justice, or a politically motivated prosecution?

The former, a tribunal has proven there was an illegal collusion between him and Muammar Gaddafi, in order to finance his presidential campaign.

There's been bags of cash that transited by private airplanes, terrorist acts in reprisal, and ultimately a probable demise of Gaddafi's regime in response.

Some real dirty actions with lots of lives lost.

And it's the second sentence for a illegal financing of his presidential campaign.

Formal proofs of this illegal financing have been linked to two of his closest collaborators but not him directly. He is so convicted for "association de malfaiteurs" wich mean "partnership with criminals / wrongdoers".

The illegal financing also explains what the US call the "Sarkozy war", which what a very odd move from France.

Note that, despite the formal proofs of the wrong doing, Sarkozy has the support of most major medias AND from the current president Macron which is not exactly the same party as Sarkozy (but close enough). That suggests politically motivated prosecution is very unlikely.