Sarkozy went to jail for campaign financing

Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first former French president to go to prison after beginning a five-year sentence for conspiring to fund his election campaign with money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Since World War II, when Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945, no former French leader has gone behind bars.

Sarkozy, who was president from 2007-2012, is appealing his sentence at La Santé prison, where he will occupy an approximately 9 sq m (95 sq ft) cell in the prison’s isolation wing.

More than 100 people lined up outside his villa in Paris’ exclusive 16th arrondissement after his son Louis, 28, called on supporters for a show of support.

Another son, Pierre, called for a message of love – “nothing else, please”.

Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, arrived at the entrance of the notorious 19th-century prison in the Montparnasse district south of the Seine at 09:40 (0740 GMT) amid heavy security.

He continues to protest his innocence in the highly controversial Libyan money affair and posted a message to X as he was taken to prison, saying: “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail. But how crushing the price will be.”

“I say with unwavering force (to the French people) that this morning they are not imprisoning a former president – this is an innocent man,” he wrote. “Pity me not, for my wife and children are by my side … but this morning I feel deep sorrow for a France humiliated by a will to revenge.”

Sarkozy said he did not want special treatment at La Santé prison, even though he was placed in the isolation ward for his own safety because other inmates are known drug dealers or convicted of terrorist offences.

Aside from Philippe Pétain, the only other former French head of state to have been imprisoned was King Louis XVI before his execution in January 1793.

His cell will have a toilet, shower, desk and small TV. He will be allowed one hour a day for exercise, alone.

Late last week, he was received at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who told reporters on Monday that “it is normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context.”

In a further measure of official support for the former president, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanen said he would visit him in prison as part of his role in ensuring Sarkozy’s safety and the proper functioning of the prison.

“I cannot be insensible to a man’s misfortune,” he added.

Prior to his arrival at La Santé prison, Sarkozy gave a series of media interviews, telling La Tribune: “I am not afraid of prison. I will keep my head held high, including at the prison gates.”

Sarkozy has always denied any wrongdoing in a case involving allegations that his 2007 presidential campaign was financed with millions of euros in Libyan money.

The former center-right leader was acquitted of personally receiving the money, but convicted of criminally conspiring with two close aides, Brice Ortefeuil and Claude Gehan, to talk to the Libyans about secret campaign financing.

The two men had spoken to Gaddafi’s intelligence chief and son-in-law in 2005 at a meeting arranged by a French-Lebanese mediator named Ziad Tiakedine, who died in Lebanon shortly before Sarkozy’s conviction.

Because he appealed, Sarkozy is still presumed innocent but has been told he must go to prison in view of the “extreme gravity of the facts”.

Sarkozy said he would take two books with him to prison, The Life of Jesus and The Count of Monte Cristo, the story of a wrongly imprisoned man who escapes to avenge his accusers.