{"id":3419,"date":"2025-10-21T12:40:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-starts-five-year-jail-term\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T12:40:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T12:40:29","slug":"former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-starts-five-year-jail-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-starts-five-year-jail-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy starts five-year jail term"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Sarkozy was convicted of criminal conspiracy for seeking campaign funds for the 2007 election from Libya\u2019s Muammar Gaddafi.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>France\u2019s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at a prison in Paris to start serving a five-year jail sentence.<\/p>\n<p>The 70-year-old leader arrived at La Sante prison in a police car on Tuesday morning, becoming the first former head of an European Union state to be jailed.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/12\/frances-macron-set-to-name-new-prime-minister-on-friday\">France\u2019s Macron set to name new prime minister on Friday<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/13\/who-is-francois-bayrou-frances-new-prime-minister\">Who is Francois Bayrou, France\u2019s new prime minister?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2024\/12\/18\/top-france-court-upholds-nicolas-sarkozys-corruption-conviction\">Top France court upholds Nicolas Sarkozy\u2019s corruption conviction<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Sarkozy was sentenced to five years after being <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/25\/nicolas-sarkozy-found-guilty-of-criminal-conspiracy-what-we-know\">found guilty last month<\/a> of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/1\/6\/ex-french-leader-sarkozy-on-trial-over-alleged-gaddafi-funds-all-to-know\">criminal conspiracy<\/a>, due to having accepted millions of euros in illegal payments from the late Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddafi, to fund his 2007 election campaign.<\/p>\n<p>He has always denied the charges. His lawyers said as he arrived to start his sentence that a request for release had been immediately filed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,\u201d he said on X on his way to prison. \u201cTruth will prevail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of supporters and family members had stood outside Sarkozy\u2019s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFree Nicolas,\u201d they shouted as he departed to head to the jail. Earlier, they had sung the French national anthem, as neighbours looked on from their balconies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is truly a sad day for France and for democracy,\u201d said Flora Amanou, 41, who came to show her support.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4049442\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4049442\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25294234189831-1761039327.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"People stand behind French flags with inscription reading \"Courage Nicolas, come back soon\", right, and \"True France with Nicolas\" outside former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's home, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 in Paris. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy heads to prison to serve time for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. (AP Photo\/Masha Macpherson)\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4049442\">People stand outside Sarkozy\u2019s home with French flags with inscriptions reading \u2018Courage Nicolas, come back soon\u2019, right, and \u2018True France with Nicolas\u2019 [Masha Macpherson\/AP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>He told Le Figaro newspaper he will 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.<\/p>\n<p>He is likely to be held in a nine-square-metre (95-square-foot) cell in the prison\u2019s solitary confinement wing, prison staff told the AFP news agency.<\/p>\n<p>This is a security measure, meaning he will avoid contact with other prisoners, according to staff.<\/p>\n<p>In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one walk a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy will also be allowed visits three times a week.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how long he will remain in jail.<\/p>\n<p>Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said during sentencing that the offences were of \u201cexceptional gravity\u201d, and therefore ordered Sarkozy to be jailed even if he filed an appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The court has two months to examine the release appeal lodged by his lawyers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sarkozy was convicted of criminal conspiracy for seeking campaign funds for the 2007 election from Libya\u2019s Muammar Gaddafi. France\u2019s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at a prison in Paris to start serving a five-year jail sentence. The 70-year-old leader arrived at La Sante prison in a police car on Tuesday morning, becoming the first &#8230; <a title=\"Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy starts five-year jail term\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/10\/21\/former-french-president-nicolas-sarkozy-starts-five-year-jail-term\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy starts five-year jail term\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}