Source: Shangguan News
According to Xinhua Agency, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, will serve his sentence in a prison in Paris starting on October 21.
Previously, he was sentenced to five years in prison in the case of political funding in Libya. On October 13th, he was summoned by the French National Financial Procuratorate and learned the time and place of his sentence.
He will become the first former or current leader of France to go to prison after the war, and the first former leader of an EU country to go to prison.
You can still apply for bail
On the afternoon of the 13th, Sarkozy appeared at the procuratorate and stayed for about 30 minutes without making any statement.
On September 25th, Sarkozy was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the Paris Criminal Court for allegedly illegally accepting campaign funding from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
The court found Sarkozy guilty of "conspiracy" between 2005 and 2007, allowing his cronies and political supporters to use means to obtain financial support from the Libya authorities for his 2007 campaign.
According to the verdict, Sarkozy was not sentenced to prison on the day of the sentence, but to receive the prosecutor's call within a month, informing the date and place of serving the sentence to begin serving.
Sarkozy then appealed the verdict, insisting that he was innocent. He said, "If I have to spend the night in prison, I have to hold my head high."
An appeal hearing will be held in the Court of Appeal in March 2026.
But unlike some cases in which the appeal suspended the execution of the judgment, the judge ordered a temporary jail for him on the basis of "extremely serious circumstances" and no suspension during the appeal.
According to the source, after imprisonment, Sarkozy may be arranged to enter a solitary cell: about 9 square meters in area, equipped with simple furniture and toilet.
Its defence team can submit a bail application to the Court of Appeal, and the court will make a decision within two months at the latest.
“The end is not determined.”
This is not the first time Sarkozy has been convicted. In December 2024, he was sentenced to three years in prison for corruption and power-for-money trading and wearing electronic leg shackles.
In recent years, Sarkozy has faced many lawsuits, of which the Libya political finance case was the most sensational.
He served as President of France from 2007 to 2012, and lost his re-election campaign in 2012.
Later, French media revealed a secret Libyan intelligence document that said Mr. Sarkozy had received huge political donations from Libya for his 2007 presidential campaign.
French prosecutors suspect Libya’s then leader, Gaddafi, and his son Saif, provided political funding to Sarkozy in support of his election campaign.
However, although Sarkozy was found guilty of "conspiracy" in this case, the relevant investigation failed to prove his corruption or embezzlement of public funds, especially the clear record of fund transfer between Paris and Tripoli.
In the last few days before his imprisonment, Sarkozy frequently met with relatives and friends, and called about 100 friends and former assistants to hold a "farewell reception", including Mulan, the current secretary general of the Elysee Palace.
Sarkozy said at the meeting that the case began with a fake document and the end of the story has not yet been determined.I don’t need your sympathy, nor do I like to complain, what I need is your indignation...The truth will eventually triumph, it’s just a matter of time.”