PARIS:
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 Moamer Kadhafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.
The 70-year-old — who has appealed the verdict — left his home on Tuesday morning, and, after a short drive flanked by police on motorbikes, entered the Parisian prison of La Sante.
Christophe Ingrain, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, said a request had been immediately filed for his release pending an appeal but he would still spend at least “three weeks to a month” behind bars.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here”, AFP reporters heard convicts shouting 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.
“The truth will prevail.”
Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Kadhafi 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.
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 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. AFP
