Nicolas Sarkozy is set to enter prison after his conviction over alleged Libyan funding, marking an extraordinary chapter in modern French politics.
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy is set to make history on Tuesday – though not in the way he would have liked.
The once all-powerful leader is due to be jailed over a long-running case involving alleged Libyan financing for his 2007 presidential campaign, becoming the first former head of an EU country to actually serve time behind bars.
Sarkozy, who held office from 2007 to 2012, was convicted in late September of criminal conspiracy over a plan to receive campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi. The court ruled that the scheme, dating back to 2005, involved his associates striking an illegal deal in exchange for political favours.
The 70-year-old former president has appealed the verdict and insists he is the victim of a grave injustice.
“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison – but with my head held high,” he told reporters defiantly after the ruling.
Sarkozy is expected to be sent to La Santé prison in Paris, a historic and somewhat forbidding facility that has previously housed everyone from the notorious militant Carlos the Jackal to disgraced model agent Jean-Luc Brunel.
Sarkozy to begin five-year jail term on 21 October in Paris prison
Solitary confinement
Sarkozy will likely be placed in solitary confinement for security reasons, according to prison officials.
His cell will measure just nine square metres – enough space for a bed, a small desk and not much else.
Officials told AFP the arrangement is intended to avoid awkward encounters or unauthorised photos, given that smuggled mobile phones are rife inside French prisons.
Under solitary confinement rules, the former president will be allowed out once a day for a brief walk in a small yard. It remains unclear how long he will stay behind bars – Judge Nathalie Gavarino said his offences were of “exceptional gravity” and ordered immediate incarceration, even pending appeal.
However, Sarkozy’s lawyers plan to request his release as soon as he arrives, and an appeals court has two months to decide.
The court could, in theory, keep him inside if it believes that’s the only way to prevent interference with evidence or witnesses. Alternatively, it could grant home detention with an electronic ankle tag – something Sarkozy is already familiar with.
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Legal troubles piling up
The former president’s latest conviction adds to a long list of legal woes since leaving the Élysée Palace in 2012.
He has already been found guilty in two separate cases – including one for trying to bribe a judge in exchange for confidential information.
That sentence was served at home under electronic surveillance until the tag was removed in May.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors alleged that Sarkozy’s team agreed to take millions from Kadhafi’s regime to help bankroll his successful 2007 campaign.
In return, France was said to have promised to rehabilitate Libya’s image internationally, following its pariah status after the 1988 Lockerbie and 1989 Niger air disasters.
Crucially, while the court found evidence of a conspiracy, it stopped short of saying Sarkozy personally received or used Libyan cash. He was acquitted on separate counts of corruption, embezzlement and illicit campaign financing.
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Public divided, right still loyal
Despite his mounting convictions, Sarkozy remains something of a hero to parts of the French right.
His son, Louis Sarkozy – who writes for a far-right newspaper and is now running for mayor in southern France – has called on supporters to “come and show support” outside his father’s Paris home before the incarceration.
Still, the broader French public appears less sympathetic. According to a recent poll by Elabe, six in ten people say Sarkozy’s latest sentence is “fair”.
President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, has weighed in to condemn the wave of online abuse and death threats directed at the presiding judge following last month’s verdict, calling them “unacceptable”.
When Sarkozy walks through the gates of La Santé, he will become the first French leader to be jailed since Marechal Philippe Pétain – the head of the Nazi-collaborationist Vichy regime – was imprisoned after World War II.
It’s a striking fall from grace for the man once dubbed “Sarko l’Américain”, admired for his energy and global ambition.
(With AFP)
