Death threats against the judge who this week convicted France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy of conspiracy charges were condemned Saturday, September 27 by the legal community and the outgoing justice minister.

The USM magistrates' union on Friday said the judge, Nathalie Gavarino, had received death threats and messages threatening her with "serious violence" and Paris prosecutors have opened two investigations into the affair.

Gavarino on Thursday sentenced Sarkozy to five years in prison, meaning he will be the first French post-war leader to serve jail time, even as he waits for his appeal to play out.

"Intimidation and death threats against judges are absolutely unacceptable in a democracy," Gerald Darmanin, justice minister in the outgoing government, said in a post on X on Saturday.

"I condemn them unreservedly," he added.

Disputing a court ruling must not be done "in the violence of personal attacks," he said.

Aurelien Martini, general secretary of the USM magistrates union, said the judge's photo had been posted on social media.

"We magistrates are quite used to getting threats from organized crime," she told BFMTV Saturday.

But for a trial that had nothing to do with organized crime, "this is a new step that has been taken," he added.

Jacques Boulard, president of the Paris Court of Appeal, also called for the independence of the courts to be respected, denouncing suggestions of partiality.

Trial conviction fallout

Sarkozy's conviction over a scheme enabling late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run has sparked anger from many on the right.

Conservative French daily Le Figaro denounced the court ruling as "absurd and incomprehensible," claiming in an editorial that there was no "tangible evidence" of wrongdoing.

Sarkozy himself condemned the verdict as "extremely serious for the rule of law" in comments to reporters outside the courtroom.

The courts also came under fire in March when far-right leader Marine Le Pen was convicted of embezzlement and banned from standing in an election for five years with immediate effect.

Le Pen said she would appeal the ruling, denouncing the judgment against her as a "political decision."

The judge who ruled against her was also subjected to a campaign of abuse and threats leading to police protection.

An investigation is also underway into that affair.