Sarkozy to enter prison for criminal conspiracy over Libyan funding

The former French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, will go to prison tomorrow after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

- Angelique Chrisafis

Sarkozy, who was the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, will become the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed.

"I'm not afraid of prison. I'll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates," Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche. He has been ordered to present himself at the gates of La Santé prison in the south of Paris early tomorrow morning. He said he had asked for "no privileges" in his treatment behind bars.

Sarkozy, 70, told Le Figaro that he had packed family photos and three books, as permitted for the first week. "I'm bringing The Count of Monte Cristo and two volumes of the biography of Jesus by Jean-Christian Petitfils," he said.

He is expected to be held in solitary confinement for his own security, in an individual cell of about 9 sq metres. He will have no mobile phone, but will have a small television. A security-controlled phoneline will allow him contact with his lawyers and family. He is expected to have the right to two visits a week from family. He told Le Figaro that he had been advised to take earplugs.

"At night you hear lots of noise, shouting, screaming," he said.