US EditionFrance's Sarkozy Proclaims Innocence as Five-Year Jail Term Gets Underway
Nicolas Sarkozy is the first former EU state leader jailed, serving five years for criminal conspiracy over a 2007 Libya funding scheme, while appealing his conviction.
- On October 22, 2025, Nicolas Sarkozy, former President of France, entered La Sante prison in Paris after a court convicted him of criminal conspiracy and handed a five-year sentence.
- The conviction stems from allegations that Sarkozy's 2007 campaign sought Kadhafi funding after prosecutors said aides struck a 2005 deal with Moamer Kadhafi, late Libyan leader.
- He is likely to be held in a nine square metre cell in the solitary confinement wing with one daily walk; two security officers are stationed in a neighbouring cell, and visits occur three times a week.
- A request for release pending appeal was filed immediately, Christophe Ingrain said Sarkozy would still spend at least three weeks to a month behind bars.
- Amid public reaction, Sarkozy becomes the first French leader jailed since Philippe Petain, with dozens of supporters and family outside his home as he took a biography of Jesus and `The Count of Monte Cristo` to prison.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Evening Standard
Al ArabiyaPolice move into cell next to Nicolas Sarkozy after prison death threats
The former president arrived at prison yesterday after being handed a five-year sentence for a plan to take money from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi
Sarkozy jailed over Libyan campaign funds, first French leader imprisoned since WWII
PARIS, Oct 22 — France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former head of an EU state to be jailed Tuesday, again proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison.The right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding from Moamer Kadhafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.The 70-year-old, who has appealed the verdict, left his home on Tuesday morning and after a short drive …
Sarkò is almost an inmate like another, even if he has been spared the total body search at the entrance, and he will be spared sleep on mattresses on the ground, the hours of air in common and forced promiscuity with the other inmates
The former President of the Republic enjoys close protection even behind bars, with two security officers assigned to his surveillance.
The former head of state was imprisoned at the Health Prison in Paris on Tuesday morning, a month after his conviction for criminal association in the case of the Libyan financing suspicions of his 2007 presidential campaign.
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