According to CCTV News, on October 21, local time, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was officially imprisoned. In September this year, he was sentenced to five years in prison on suspicion of illegally accepting campaign funding provided by Gaddafi. Although Sarkozy insisted that he was "innocent" and appealed, the judicial system still initiated the sentence enforcement process in accordance with the law. The 70-year-old former president is likely to be placed in a quarantine cell, avoiding contact with other prisoners to ensure safety. His son called on people to come near his home to express support.
every edited| Zhang Jinhe
According to CCTV news, on October 21st, local time, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy went to La Sante Prison in Paris and officially began to serve his sentence.
For allegedly illegally receiving campaign funding from former Libyan leader Gaddafi, Sarkozy was sentenced on September 25 to five years in prison by a Paris criminal court, some of which could be carried out at home by electronic surveillance.
Nathalie Gavarino, the presiding judge of the Paris Criminal Court, said that Sarkozy was convicted of "conspiracy" between 2005 and 2007 and "allowed his cronies and political supporters to ask the Libyan government for financial support in the 2007 presidential campaign".
Sarkozy insisted on his “innocence” after the trial and said he would appeal the verdict. French media, citing reports from the justice department, that while Sarkozy had filed an appeal, the judicial system would still initiate a lawful sentence enforcement procedure before the appeal trial began, informing him of the arrangements for serving his sentence.
Sarkozy was president of France from 2007 to 2012.
Nicolas Sarkozy will become the first former president in the history of the French Republic and the first former head of state of the European Union to be imprisoned: almost a month after being sentenced to five years in the Libyan case, Sarkozy will be imprisoned in the Paris Saint-Germain prison on 21 October.
"I am not afraid of going to jail. Even standing in front of the gates of Sants prison, I will hold my head high," the former leader of the French right told the Sunday Tribune, whose lawyers will file an application for parole as soon as he is in jail.
According to prison officials familiar with the situation in the only prison in Paris, the 70-year-old former president is likely to be placed in one of the 15 9-square-meter cells in the quarantine area. Sources pointed out that this move will prevent Sarkozy from coming into contact with other prisoners to ensure their safety, and will also prevent him from being photographed with mobile phones that are now widely used in prisons.
Sarkozy denied that Libya had funded his 2007 election campaign, and compared himself to the most famous unjust figures in French history and literature-Alfred Dreyfus and the "Count of Monte Cristo". His son Louis called on people to "express their support for Sarkozy" near Sarkozy's residence on the morning of 21st on the social platform X.
While awaiting his release, Sarkozy will be alone. The solitary confinement system stipulates that you can walk alone in a small courtyard of several square meters once a day. According to the established plan, he can use one of the three small gymnasiums in the prison area, or a room used as a library.
The former head of state will be accompanied by at least one prison guard when traveling to places such as visiting cells or infirmary and initiate so-called "road clearance" procedures to avoid contact with other prisoners.
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