French President Sarkozy Sarkozy goes to prison for Campaign Finans Decuriracy
Nicolas Sarkozy has become the first French President to go to prison, as he begins a five-year sentence for allegedly financing his election campaign with Libyan dictator Gaddashi.
As the two world wars of the Nazis emerged Philippe Pétain was imprisoned for treason in 1945 with any French leader bordering France.
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007-2012, appealed to his prison in La Santé prison, where he will live in a small cell in Will’s Solration Wing.
More than 100 people clapped and shouted “Nicolas!” When he left his villa in the exclusive 16th arrondissement of Paris, holding his wife Carla Bruni-sarkozy by the hand.
His son Louis, 28, appealed to supporters for support, while another son, Pierre, asked for a message of love – “nothing.
Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, was driven to the door of the overcrowded prison of 19 in the Monttarnasse District South of the 09:40 GMT), while many police officers were found by many surrounding streets.
He continues to protest his innocence in Libya Money adfrair adfrair sent a message to X as he was led to prison, saying “I have no doubts.
“It’s a power that can’t be unlocked, I mean [the French people] No one has ever been the President who locked them up this morning – it’s an innocent man,”
Sometime after entering Sarkozy, his lawyer Christophe Ingrain said that a request for his extradition has been filed. There is no confirmation of his arrest, said Ingrain: “He will be inside for at least three weeks or a month.”
Sarkozy has said that he does not want special treatment at La Santé prison, even though he has been placed in isolation for his own safety as some prisoners sell drugs or have been convicted of drug trafficking.
Nicolas Sarkozy has maintained his innocence and filed an appeal [Reuters]
A small cell with a TV, and a daily exercise of one hour
Sarkozy’s cell in the prison’s isolation wing is believed to be on the top floor and will measure between 9-11 sq m (95-120 sq ft). When he used to talk about him serving his name in another wing of vulnerable people “where other Shiloh have been condemned before.
He will have a toilet, a shower, a desk, a small electric hob and a small TV, for which he will have to pay a fee every 14 months (and the right to a small fridge.
A former president has the right to information from a foreign country as well as family visits and telephone communications.
But in fact he is in solitary confinement, allowed only one hour a day to exercise, alone in the compound courtyard of the wing.
“The conditions of detention in the isolation unit are harsh,” la santé ex-pat Flavie Rault told BFMTV. “You are alone, all the time. The only contact you have is with the prison staff. You will never encounter another number of security reasons and there is a kind of social isolation that makes life difficult”.
At the end of last week Sarkozy was received at the Éylysée Palace by President Emmanuel Macron, who told reporters on Monday “It was normal that on a personal level I should find one of my predecessors”.
In another measure of official support for the former President, Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said he would visit him in prison as part of his role in ensuring Sarkozy’s safety and the proper functioning of the prison.
He added: “I have no sympathy for human distress,” he added.
Since leaving office in 2012 Sarkozy has been embroiled in criminal inquiries and had to wear an electric tag around his ankle after being convicted last December of trying to bribe a magistrate with secret information about a separate case.
At the end of next month, France’s highest administrative court will give its decision on Sarkozy’s appeal against a six-month prison sentence in another campaign case known as the Bygmalion Affair.
Before his arrival at La Santé prison, Sarkozy gave a series of press interviews, telling La Tribune: “I am not afraid of prison. I will keep my head held high, including the prison gates.”
Sarkozy has consistently denied any wrongdoing in the case involving allegations that his 2007 campaign was financed by millions of Euros in Libyan Cash.
The former Leader of the Center-Right was personally cleared of receiving money but was convicted of conspiring with close criminals, Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéan, for their role in balancing Libya.
The two men both had talks with the head of Gadaffi’s intelligence and Gadaffi’s mother-in-law in 2005, at a meeting organized by Franco-LeBonke’s lawyer Ziad Tiakeddine, who died in the Sarkozy case.
When he appealed, Sarkozy was still presumed innocent but was told he should go to prison because of the “seriousness of the facts”.
Sarkozy said he would take two books from prison, the life of Jesus by Jean-Christian Petitfils and the figure of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas Classic story, Alexandre Dumas Classic story of a rotten man in a rotten man who motivated his persecutors.
