Former French President, Nicolas Sarkozy has begun a five-year jail term, entering La Santé prison in Paris.
This comes after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, President of France between 2007 and 2012, is the first former Head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed since Philippe Pétain, the Nazi collaborationist was jailed after the Second World War.
Sarkozy organised a highly stage-managed departure from his home in the west of Paris where he walked on foot with his wife, the singer Carla Bruni, to greet crowds gathered to in the street outside his home.
At the same time, Sarkozy’s social media account published a message in which he said, “I am innocent,” and called his imprisonment a “judicial scandal.”
Sarkozy was found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy over a scheme to seek funding from the regime of Gaddafi for his victorious 2007 French presidential election campaign.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, struck a deal with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
At his trial, Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and said he was not part of a criminal conspiracy to seek election funding from Libya. He has appealed against his conviction. A new trial is expected in about six months, but the nature of Sarkozy’s prison sentence means he must go to jail as his appeal process plays out.
Sarkozy is expected to be held in solitary confinement for his own security, in an individual cell of about 9sq metres with his own shower and toilet. He will have no mobile phone, but will have a small television. A security-controlled phone line will allow him contact with his lawyers and family. He is expected to have the right to two visits a week from family.
Prominent or at-risk prisoners are generally held in the jail’s QB4 ward for “vulnerable people” – the so-called “VIP quarters” – in single cells, not the usual three-person units, and kept alone during outdoor activities for security reasons.
Located on the first floor, the ward has 19 identical cells and a dedicated exercise yard so inmates are not obliged to mingle with other prisoners – although they remain subject to whistles, jeers and smartphone photos from nearby cells.
Motion For Sarkozy’s Release Filed
Sarkozy’s lawyers filed a motion for his release as soon as he entered the jail, and the appeals court has two months to examine the request.
In such cases, the court can order a release under judicial supervision or home arrest with an ankle tag. The court could also decide against letting out a prisoner if, for example, it deems this the only way to prevent evidence-tampering or witness intimidation.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain said that the Ex-President will remain in prison for at least three weeks to a month, after confirming a request had been immediately filed for his release.
The Paris appeals court in theory has two months to decide whether to free him pending an appeals trial, but the delay is usually shorter.
Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said during sentencing that the offences were of “exceptional gravity”, and therefore ordered Sarkozy to be jailed even if he filed an appeal.
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