Nicolas Sarkozy should be jailed for seven years for being the “instigator” of a corrupt deal with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The three financial prosecutors also requested that the former French president pay a €300,000 (£250,000) fine and be banned for five years from holding elected office for his role in the alleged embezzlement scandal.

“A very dark picture of a part of our republic has been painted”, said prosecutor Sébastien de la Touanne as he entered the final stretch of the closing arguments at the 12-week trial in Paris, due to end on April 10.

Mr Sarkozy, 70, who was president from 2007-2012, is accused of taking money from Gaddafi, who died in 2011, to fund his election campaign in return for giving the Libyan leader diplomatic support. He denies the charges.

He was already convicted and jailed for one year in a separate influence-peddling case, a sentence he is currently serving with an electronic tag rather than in prison.

The prosecutors also called for a six-year prison sentence for Claude Guéant, Sarkozy’s former right-hand man, and a €100,000 fine, and a €150,000 fine for Brice Hortefeux, his former interior minister.