Sarkozy applauded as he heads to prison Our Foreign StaffOctober 21, 2025 at 1:51 AM 0 Credit: Reuters Nicolas Sarkozy was applauded as he headed to jail to begin his fiveyear sentence after being found guilty of seeking to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.
- - Sarkozy applauded as he heads to prison
Our Foreign StaffOctober 21, 2025 at 1:51 AM
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Credit: Reuters
Nicolas Sarkozy was applauded as he headed to jail to begin his five-year sentence after being found guilty of seeking to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.
The former French president walked out of his home hand-in-hand with his wife, singer Carla Bruni, on Tuesday morning as dozens of supporters applauded, some holding up framed portraits of him.
Sarkozy, France's Right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty last month of conspiring to finance his presidential campaign with funds from Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan dictator.
He becomes the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Pétain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state, who was jailed after the Second World War. Sarkozy is also the first former head of an EU country to serve time behind bars.
Sarkozy leaves his house with his wife Carla Bruni to head to La Santé prison - Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters
"It is not a former president of the Republic who is being locked up this morning, it is an innocent man," Sarkozy said on social media as he was being driven to jail.
He vowed to continue "denouncing this judicial scandal, this path of the cross I have been subjected to for more than 10 years".
"I am not to be pitied because my wife and my children are at my side and my friends are innumerable," he said.
"The truth will triumph. But the price will have been overwhelming."
The 70-year-old is expected to be held in solitary confinement for his own safety in a prison famous for caging the terrorist called Carlos the Jackal.
The former president has said he would use his time behind bars to write a book.
He had his prison bag packed with clothes and the 10 family photos he is permitted with him when he arrived at the prison to be processed at about 9.35am local time.
Sarkozy and his lawyer left the motorcade on the road, which was closed to traffic, in images broadcast live on rolling TV news channels amid huge media attention. By 9.40am, it was confirmed that Sarkozy had been taken into custody.
One of Sarkozy's sons, Louis, had called for a rally on Tuesday morning in support of his father in the high-end Paris neighbourhood where Sarkozy lives with his wife.
The supermodel-turned-singer has shared photos of Sarkozy's children and songs in his honour on her social media feeds since his conviction.
Sarkozy kisses his wife before leaving in a car to head to La Santé prison - Benoit Tessier/Reuters
Supporters, at times singing La Marseillaise, gathered outside Sarkozy's home which his children visited in the morning before he left for prison in what was described as a spirit of "resistance".
Sarkozy did not speak before he left but saluted and waved to the crowd. After entering the car, his motorcade with police motorcycle escort whisked him away.
His wife and family remained behind to thank his supporters.
"I am very proud of him," said Guillaume Sarkozy, his brother.
"I am proud that we share the same name. I am proud that he is going to prison with his head held high, and I am totally convinced of his innocence," Mr Sarkozy said.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, received Sarkozy at the Elysee on Friday. On Monday, he defended the decision to welcome a conservative with whom he formed a friendship during his first term when he wanted to show he was tough on law and order.
"I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but it was normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context,'' Mr Macron said.
Sarkozy did not speak before he left but saluted and waved to the crowd - Thibault Camus/AP
Sarkozy has said that he would bring three books – the maximum allowed – including Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo, in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge, and a biography of Jesus.
Jean-Michel Darrois, one of Sarkozy's lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself "mentally prepared" to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.
"First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it's cold in prison, and earplugs because it's very noisy," Mr Darrois said on France Info, the news broadcaster. "Isolation like what he's going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared," he added.
Top floor of isolation wing
Sarkozy will be housed on the top floor of the isolation wing, separate from the other inmates, and will always be accompanied by a guard.
His cell will be equipped with a bed, desk, shower, toilet and hot plate. He can also apply to have a fridge and a television.
Aside from his cell, the convicted ex-president will be able to make two visits a day to one of the prison's three gyms or small exercise yards.
The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to "the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offence".
Under the ruling, Sarkozy will only be able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he is behind bars, and judges will then have up to two months to process the request.
His lawyers will make a request for release very quickly but the former president is expected to serve three weeks to a month before the Court of Appeal rules.
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