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Agence France-Presse

France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former head of an EU state to be jailed Tuesday, 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.
The 70-year-old - who has appealed the verdict - left his home, and after a short drive flanked by police on motorbikes, entered the La Sante prison in the French capital.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here,” convicts shouted 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.
After his September 25 verdict, Sarkozy had said he would “sleep in prison - but with my head held high”.
Dozens of supporters and family members had stood outside the former president’s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits of him.

“Nicolas, Nicolas! Free Nicolas,” they shouted as he left his home, holding hands with his wife, singer Carla Bruni.
Earlier they had sung the French national anthem, as neighbours looked on from their balconies.
“This is truly a sad day for France and for democracy,” said Flora Amanou, 41, who had come to show her support.
Sarkozy is the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.
He has told Le Figaro newspaper he would be taking 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 jail but escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy would likely be held in a 95 sq ft cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing, prison staff told Agence France-Presse.

This would avoid contact with other prisoners or them taking pictures of him with one of the many mobile phones that were smuggled inside, according to staff.
In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy would also be allowed visits three times a week.
It was unclear how long Sarkozy would remain in jail.
Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said during sentencing that the offences were of “exceptional gravity”, and therefore ordered Sarkozy to be jailed even if he filed an appeal.
But Sarkozy’s lawyers were expected to request his release immediately, and the appeals court would then have two months to examine it.
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012.

He has been convicted in two separate trials. In one, he served a sentence for corruption under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle tag, which was removed after several months in May.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
The court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over the plan.
But the ruling did not follow the prosecutors’ conclusion that Sarkozy received or used the funds for his campaign.
It acquitted him on charges of embezzling Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral campaign.

Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, his Legion of Honour, following the earlier corruption conviction.
Six out of 10 people in France believe the prison sentence to be “fair”, according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted by pollster Elabe.
But Sarkozy still enjoys support on the French right and has on occasion had private meetings with President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the Elysee Palace on Friday, a government source said, a decision the French president defended on Monday.
“It was normal, on a human level, for me to receive one of my predecessors in this context,” Macron said.


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France

A kiss, then goodbye: France’s ex-president Sarkozy enters jail proclaiming innocence

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy kisses his wife Carla Bruni before leaving in a car to prison. Photo: Reuters

Carla Bruni blows a kiss as her husband heads to prison. Photo: AP

Supporters of Nicolas Sarkozy gather outside his residence. Photo: AFP

Nicolas Sarkozy arriving at La Sante prison. Photo: AP

French police secure the area near La Sante prison. Photo: Reuters

A cell in La Sante prison. File photo: AP

Sarkozy set to become France’s first ever jailed ex-president

Nicolas Sarkozy exits a vehicle as he returns to his home in Paris following his meeting with prosecutors to be informed of the start of his jail sentence. Photo: AFP

Nicolas Sarkozy at a window in his office in Paris. Photo: AFP

France hunts thieves who stole crown jewels from Louvre in daring minutes-long heist

Members of a forensics team inspect a window believed to have been used in the robbery. Photo: Reuters

The Apollo Gallery that houses the French crown jewels. Photo: Olivia Wong via Reuters

A necklace that Napoleon gave his wife, Empress Marie Louise. Photo: AFP

A crown of Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III. Photo: AFP

The powered, extendable ladder that was used by the thieves to access one of the upper floors of the museum. Photo: EPA

French ex-president Sarkozy will serve prison time despite appeal in Libya funding case

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy after a Paris court sentenced him to fives years. Photo: AP

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2001. The former Libyan leader died in 2011. Photo: Reuters

Outside of La Santé prison in Paris, France. Photo: Reuters

French ex-president Sarkozy given 5-year sentence in Gaddafi campaign funding case

Muammar Gaddafi (right) and Nicolas Sarkozy arrive at Bab Azizia Palace in Tripoli in July 2007. Photo: EPA-EFE

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy arrives for the verdict in his trial for illegal campaign financing from Libya for his successful 2007 presidential bid, at a Paris court on Thursday. Photo: AFP

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy (left) and his wife, Carla Bruni, arrive at the courthouse in Paris on Thursday. Photo: AP

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World

Europe

Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, enters a Paris prison to serve a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy involving Libyan funding


Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, enters a Paris prison to serve a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy involving Libyan funding.
