Two whistleblowers in the "LuxLeaks" tax scandal were given suspended jail sentences on Wednesday for leaking thousands of documents that exposed Luxembourg's huge tax breaks for major international companies. The LuxLeaks scandal sparked a major global push against the generous deals handed to multinationals that grew even further after the Panama Papers revelations earlier this year.

Former Pricewaterhouse Coopers employees Antoine Deltour and Raphael Halet received 12-month and nine-month sentences respectively while journalist Edouard Perrin was acquitted of all charges. In his ruling, Judge Marc Thill recognised the defendants' status as whistleblowers and their "undeniable contribution... to greater transparency" on tax matters.

The documents revealed the huge tax breaks that tiny EU nation Luxembourg offered international firms including Apple, IKEA and Pepsi, at a time when Jean-Claude Juncker, now head of the European Commission, was prime minister. The revelations ended up forcing the EU to take urgent steps to stop global firms avoiding tax in Europe, including anti-trust inquiries into firms like Apple, McDonald's and Amazon.

The scandal also pressured Luxembourg into accepting a new law that requires EU member states to share tax deal information with its bloc partners. In an email to AFP, a support group for Deltour said both men would appeal, adding that the verdict amounted to a dangerous "warning towards future whistleblowers" by the court.

Deltour and Halet faced a maximum penalty of 10 years on charges which included stealing documents, revealing business secrets and violation of professional secrets. The documents were originally used for a 2012 report by reporter Perrin on French public television but really exploded onto the world stage two years later with the huge "LuxLeaks" release of all 30,000 pages into the public domain. The case drew world-wide attention and a few dozen tax campaigners demonstrated outside the court in Luxembourg on Wednesday at the start of the hearing.