Sarkozy becomes first French President jailed

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first president in France’s history to go to jail, following his conviction for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with cash from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

The 70-year-old ex-president began serving his five-year sentence at La Santé Prison in Paris on Monday morning,  the first time a former head of state has been jailed since World War II leader Philippe Pétain, who was imprisoned for treason in 1945.

Sarkozy, who ruled France from 2007 to 2012, arrived at the 19th-century prison under tight security at about 9:40 a.m. local time, accompanied by police escorts and watched by dozens of cameras.

Despite the humiliation, Sarkozy maintained his innocence, saying in a statement posted on X:

“I have no doubt. Truth will prevail. But how crushing the price will have been.”
“With unwavering strength I tell [the French people] it is not a former president they are locking up this morning it is an innocent man.”

He added that he felt “deep sorrow for a France humiliated by a will for revenge,” but urged his supporters not to pity him, saying his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and children were standing firmly by his side.

Outside his Paris home in the city’s exclusive 16th district, more than a hundred supporters gathered in solidarity, waving French flags and cheering as the former president waved and embraced his wife before departing.

Sarkozy will serve his sentence in a 9-square-metre isolation cell fitted with a bed, shower, toilet, desk, and television. Authorities said the isolation measure was for his own safety, as the prison also houses high-risk inmates, including drug traffickers and convicted terrorists.

He will be allowed one hour of daily outdoor exercise.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin announced plans to visit Sarkozy in prison “to ensure his safety and the proper functioning of the jail,” saying he could not be “insensitive to a man’s distress.”

President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed that he met Sarkozy privately at the Élysée Palace before his incarceration, describing the gesture as “normal on a human level.”

In an interview before his imprisonment, Sarkozy told La Tribune:

“I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates.”

Although cleared of personally receiving the Libyan money, Sarkozy was convicted of criminal association over the actions of two close aides, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant, who allegedly held talks with Gaddafi’s intelligence chief in 2005 to secure secret campaign financing.

While Sarkozy has lodged an appeal and remains legally presumed innocent pending its outcome, the court ruled that he must begin serving his sentence due to the “exceptional seriousness of the facts.”

Before entering prison, Sarkozy revealed he was taking two books with him: a life of Jesus and The Count of Monte Cristo, a story about a man wrongfully imprisoned who escapes to seek justice.