Former governor of Illinois, who was forced from office in 2009, faces 20 years in jail after being convicted of trying to sell Obama's Senate seat Reuters

Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, has been found guilty in Chicago of 17 of 20 corruption charges against him – including trying to sell or swap Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat.

Jurors delivered their verdicts on Monday after deliberating for nine days.

They jury found Blagojevich guilty on all 11 charges related to the Senate seat, but found him not guilty of soliciting bribes in the alleged shakedown of a road-building executive. The panel was deadlocked on a charge of attempted extortion on that same case.

Judge James Zagel has ruled that Blagojevich will be barred from travelling outside the northern district of Illinois without permission from the judge. A status hearing for sentencing has been set for 1 August.

Blagojevich's defence team had insisted that hours of FBI wiretap recordings were just the remarks of a politician who liked to think out loud. He faces up to 300 years in prison, although sentencing guidelines will almost certainly reduce his time behind bars.

He also faces up to five additional years in prison for a previous conviction of lying to the FBI.

After hearing the verdict, Blagojevich turned to defence attorney Sheldon Sorosky and said: "What happened?" Blagojevich's wife, Patti, slumped against her brother, then rushed into her husband's arms.

The former governor spoke only briefly with reporters as he left the courthouse, but said he was stunned by the verdict.

"Well, among the many lessons I've learned from this whole experience is to try to speak a little bit less, so I'm going to keep my remarks kind of short," Blagojevich said. He said he and his wife wanted "to get home to our little girls and talk to them and explain things to them and then try to sort things out."