French Olympic Committee president Henri Serandour faces possible suspension and expulsion from the International Olympic Committee after being found guilty of corruption Thursday.

Serandour, who was handed a suspended three-month jail term, was accused of giving two lucrative jobs to a communications company that had hired his wife, former swimmer Catherine Poirot.

Serandour said he would appeal the ruling by a Paris criminal court, which convicted the 69-year-old of "illegally taking advantages."

He also told the Associated Press he could not be suspended by the IOC until his appeal is heard.

The IOC, which has the right to expel any member found guilty of corruption, usually awaits the outcomes of appeals before sanctioning members.

Serandour's lawyer, Patrick Maisonneuve, said his client's IOC membership expires at the end of 2007 and an appeals court would likely not rule on the case before next summer.

The case could still be open when Serandour retires if the conviction is upheld and Serandour appeals to a higher court.

"Henri Serandour has always been of good faith," Maisonneuve said. "He never had the intention of taking advantage of anything."

Prosecutors in the trial, which began last June, were hoping for a six-month suspended sentence.

An IOC member since 2000, Serandour could join former sports minister and Olympic champion Guy Drut as the second French member of the Olympic governing body to be suspended for corruption.

Serandour came under scrutiny for awarding the company contracts for the renovation of the French committee's website and the creation of a mural with the photos of 600 French Olympic medallists.

In the case of the internet site, bids were sought only after the Court of Auditors criticized the procedure. The company, Pleyades, won the contract, but had allegedly already been contacted before bids went out.

Drut, the 110-metre hurdles champion at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, was slapped with a 15-month suspended sentence last October and fined 50,000 euros ($71,285 Cdn) for benefiting from a fictitious job at a construction company.

In a widely criticized decision, French President Jacques Chirac forgave Drut, opening the way for his return to the IOC. Drut was later reinstated by the IOC but barred from chairing a commission.

With files from the Associated Press