Nicolas Sarkozy, former French president, jailed in Paris after being convicted of conspiracy to finance campaigns

Paris — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday became the first former head of a European Union state to be imprisoned, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison. Right-wing leader of France from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy was found guilty last month of trying to obtain financing from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that led to his election.

News journalists saw the 70-year-old man, who appealed the sentence, leave his house and, after a short journey, flanked by police on motorcycles, enter La Sante prison in the French capital.

“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy is here,” News journalists heard the prisoners shout from their cells.

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

“This is not a former president of the republic who is imprisoned this morning, but rather an innocent man,” he stated in the message. “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail.”

Sarkozy was He received a five-year prison sentence in September for criminal conspiracy to plan The late Libyan dictator Gaddafi to finance his electoral campaign. Gaddafi was assassinated in 2011, the first leader killed amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings that shook the Middle East as several countries with long-standing dictatorial regimes faced popular revolts.

After his September 25 verdict, Sarkozy had said he would “sleep in prison, but with his head held high.”

Dozens of supporters and family members had been outside the former president’s home since early Tuesday morning, some holding framed portraits of him.

“Nicolás, Nicolás! Free Nicolás!” They shouted at him when he left his house, hand in hand with his wife, the singer Carla Bruni.

Earlier they had sung the French national anthem while neighbors watched from their balconies.

“This is really a sad day for France and for democracy,” said Flora Amanou, 41.

Sarkozy’s lawyer says request for release has already been submitted

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, said a request for Sarkozy’s release had been immediately made.

In theory, the Paris appeals court has two months to decide whether to release him pending an appeal trial, but the delay is usually shorter.

“He’ll be in for at least three weeks to a month,” Ingrain said.

Sarkozy is the first French leader to be imprisoned since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.

Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper that he will take with him a biography of Jesus and a copy of “The Count of Monte Cristo,” a novel in which an innocent man is sentenced to prison but escapes to take revenge.

Sarkozy faces probable confinement in solitary confinement

Sarkozy is likely to be held in a 95-square-foot cell in the prison’s isolation wing to avoid contact with other inmates, prison staff told News.

In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small courtyard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.

Former French presidents have multiple legal problems

Sarkozy has faced a series of legal problems since losing his re-election bid in 2012.

He has also been convicted in two other cases.

In one, he served a sentence for corruption (for trying to obtain favors from a judge) under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle tag, which was removed after several months in May.

In another, France’s highest court will rule next month in a case in which he is accused of illegal campaign financing in 2012.

In the so-called “Libyo case,” prosecutors said his advisers, acting on behalf of Sarkozy, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally finance his victorious presidential bid two years later.

Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help restoring his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombings. Passenger plane bombing over LockerbieScotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.

The court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over the scheme, but did not conclude that Sarkozy received or used the funds for his campaign.

It acquitted him of charges of embezzlement of Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an election campaign.

Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, its Legion of Honor, following his earlier corruption conviction.

Six out of 10 people in France believe that prison sentences are “fair”, according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults by pollster Elabe. But Sarkozy still enjoys support from the French right and has occasionally had private meetings with President Emmanuel Macron.

Macron received Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace on Friday and told reporters this week: “It was normal, on a human level, for me to receive one of my predecessors in this context.”

In:

• Nicolas Sarkozy
• Paris
• Corruption
• Muammar Gaddafi
• Libya
• France