Sarkozy begins 5-year prison term over criminal conspiracy

HE IS THE FIRST FORMER HEAD OF A EUROPEAN UNION STATE TO BE JAILED

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Nicolas Sarkozy, with wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, leaves his residence to present himself to La Sante Prison for incarceration on a five-year prison sentence.

(AFP)

France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former head of an EU state to be jailed yesterday, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison.

France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.

AFP journalists saw the 70-year-old who has appealed the verdict leave his home, and after a short drive, flanked by police on motorbikes, enter the La Sante prison in the French capital.

Welcome from convicts

“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here,” AFP reporters heard convicts shouting from their cells.

In a defiant message posted on social media as he was being transferred, Sarkozy denied any wrongdoing.

“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he said on X. “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail.”

Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Gaddafi to fund his electoral campaign.