Nicolas Sarkozy will on Tuesday become the first former French president in modern history to step into a prison cell, the former president hinted over the weekend.
Sarkozy, once a star of the French conservative scene, was last month sentenced to five years in prison for allegedly allowing his close associates and informal intermediaries to try to obtain financial support from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya in exchange for economic and diplomatic concessions as he prepared for his first presidential campaign ahead of the 2007 election.
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who was Sarkozy’s spokesperson in 2014 and has remained close to him, said that he met with Sarkozy after the verdict and will visit him in prison due to concerns for his safety.
Sarkozy said in an interview that he will serve his sentence in the de la Sante prison, the only prison within the city limits of Paris.
He will become the first French head of state to end up behind bars since Nazi collaborator Philippe Petain, who signed the French capitulation to Germany in 1940.
Petain’s legacy today is firmly associated with collaboration and one of the darkest chapters in French history.
It is not clear how long Sarkozy will remain in prison. Once behind bars, he will be able to request an adjustment of his sentence, which could allow him to serve it in a different way, for example at home under electronic monitoring.
Sarkozy has appealed the verdict and has repeatedly claimed that he is innocent, but the three-member judicial panel that led the case concluded that the seriousness of the charges requires his immediate imprisonment, despite the appeal.
Appeal proceedings in France usually allow defendants to delay the execution of their sentence until the appeal process is completed.
Appeal dates are also scheduled in shorter time frames for people who are detained while awaiting a new trial.
Although the former president has had multiple run-ins with the law since leaving office in 2012, he remains an influential figure on the French right.
He met with the new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu shortly after his appointment in September, as well as with Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally, in August.
In the interview, Sarkozy said that he had a phone conversation with Marine Le Pen of the National Rally, who was earlier this year convicted of alleged embezzlement of European Parliament funds, as well as with his former prime minister Francois Fillon, who was also convicted of misusing public funds.
Le Pen has appealed the verdict and continues to claim she is innocent. Fillon has exhausted all appeal options.
Sarkozy was earlier this year finally found guilty of corruption in a separate case, after exhausting all appeals, which led to his brief house arrest. The French Supreme Court is also due to deliver a final ruling on November 26th in a case related to the violation of campaign financing laws during his second presidential run in 2012, in which two lower courts have already found him guilty. Sarkozy has repeatedly claimed he is innocent in those cases as well.
In the Gaddafi-related trial, Sarkozy was acquitted of corruption charges because the court could not determine that the alleged deal between Sarkozy’s associates and Libya continued after Sarkozy took office, presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino explained when delivering the verdict.
The court’s ruling showed that it could neither confirm nor rule out that Libyan money reached Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In the interview, Sarkozy said he will bring with him a copy of Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo, which tells the story of a man who escapes from prison after being falsely accused of treason and imprisoned without trial, as well as a biography of Jesus Christ.
