With three other legal cases pending against him, Monday's conviction deals a blow to any hope Sarkozy has of making another political comeback after a failed bid to win a presidential nomination in 2016.
Sarkozy gave a front-page interview to the newspaper Le Figaro and was due later Wednesday to give a prime-time interview to the evening TF1 news bulletin.
Prosecutors called for him to be jailed for four years and serve a minimum of two, and asked for the same punishment for his co-defendants -- lawyer Thierry Herzog and judge Gilbert Azibert.
The state's case is based on wiretaps of conversations between Herzog and Sarkozy, something the former president denounced during his address to the court.
Sarkozy is on trial for charges of trying to bribe a judge and influence-peddling, among several charges that threaten to cast an ignominious pall over his decades-long political career.