Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy starts five-year jail term

Sarkozy was convicted of criminal conspiracy for seeking campaign funds for the 2007 election from Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at a prison in Paris to start serving a five-year jail sentence.

The 70-year-old leader arrived at La Sante prison in a police car on Tuesday morning, becoming the first former head of an European Union state to be jailed.

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Sarkozy was sentenced to five years after being found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy, due to having accepted millions of euros in illegal payments from the late Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, to fund his 2007 election campaign.

He has always denied the charges. His lawyers said as he arrived to start his sentence that a request for release had been immediately filed.

“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he said on X on his way to prison. “Truth will prevail.”

Dozens of supporters and family members had stood outside Sarkozy’s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits.

“Free Nicolas,” they shouted as he departed to head to the jail. Earlier, they had sung the French national anthem, as neighbours looked on from their balconies.

“This is truly a sad day for France and for democracy,” said Flora Amanou, 41, who came to show her support.

People stand outside Sarkozy’s home with French flags with inscriptions reading ‘Courage Nicolas, come back soon’, right, and ‘True France with Nicolas’ [Masha Macpherson/AP]

Sarkozy is the first French leader to be imprisoned since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state, who was jailed after World War II.

He told Le Figaro newspaper he will be taking with him a biography of Jesus and a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo, a novel in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.

He is likely to be held in a nine-square-metre (95-square-foot) cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing, prison staff told the AFP news agency.

This is a security measure, meaning he will avoid contact with other prisoners, according to staff.

In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.

It is unclear how long he will remain in jail.

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.

The court has two months to examine the release appeal lodged by his lawyers.