France’s former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, was jailed on Tuesday for corruption, becoming the first former head of state in the European Union to be incarcerated.
Sarkozy, who led France from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy. The conviction stems from a plan to secure illicit funding from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for his successful 2007 election campaign.
AFP journalists witnessed the 70-year-old enter the La Sante prison in Paris. As he was being transferred, Sarkozy proclaimed his innocence in a defiant message on social media.
“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he wrote on X. “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail.”
Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail term in September. His lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, stated that a request for his release has already been filed. The Paris appeals court has two months to decide on freeing him pending an appeal, though Ingrain suggested Sarkozy would be “inside for at least three weeks to a month.”
He is expected to be held in a 9-square-meter (95 sq ft) cell in the prison’s solitary confinement wing.
Sarkozy has faced numerous legal troubles since 2012 and has been convicted in two other cases. He previously served a sentence for graft under house arrest with an electronic ankle tag.
Despite the convictions, Sarkozy still holds support on the French right. President Emmanuel Macron met with him at the Elysee Palace last Friday, calling the meeting “normal, on a human level.”
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