Paris — France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy grew to become the primary earlier head of a European Union state to be jailed on Tuesday, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris jail. France’s right-wing chief from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy was discovered responsible final month of searching for to amass funding from Muammmar Qaddafi’s Libya for the marketing campaign that noticed him elected.
AFP journalists noticed the 70-year-old — who has appealed the decision — depart his house, and after a brief drive flanked by police on motorbikes, enter the La Sante jail within the French capital.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s right here,” AFP reporters heard convicts shouting from their cells.
In a defiant message posted on social media as he was being transferred, Sarkozy once more denied any wrongdoing.
“It isn’t a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, however an harmless man,” he stated within the submit. “I’ve little doubt. The reality will prevail.”
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Sarkozy was handed a five-year jail time period in September for felony conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Qaddafi to fund his electoral marketing campaign. Qaddafi was killed in 2011 — the primary chief killed amid the “Arab Spring” uprisings that rocked the Center East as numerous international locations with long-time dictatorial regimes confronted well-liked revolts.
After his September 25 verdict, Sarkozy had stated he would “sleep in jail — however with my head held excessive.”
Dozens of supporters and members of the family had stood exterior the previous president’s house from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits of him.
“Nicolas, Nicolas! Free Nicolas,” they shouted as he left his house, holding palms along with his spouse, singer Carla Bruni.
Earlier that they had sung the French nationwide anthem as neighbors appeared on from their balconies.
“That is really a tragic day for France and for democracy,” stated Flora Amanou, 41.
Sarkozy’s lawyer says launch request already filed
Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain stated a request had been instantly filed for Sarkozy’s launch.
The Paris appeals court docket in concept has two months to resolve whether or not to free him pending an appeals trial, however the delay is often shorter.
“He might be inside for a minimum of three weeks to a month,” Ingrain stated.
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Sarkozy is the primary French chief to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World Battle II.
Sarkozy informed Le Figaro newspaper he might be taking with him a biography of Jesus and a replica of “The Rely of Monte Cristo,” a novel through which an harmless man is sentenced to jail however escapes to take revenge.
Sarkozy going through probably solitary confinement
Sarkozy is prone to be held in a 95 sq. foot cell within the jail’s solitary confinement wing to keep away from contact with different prisoners, jail employees informed AFP.
In solitary confinement, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for one stroll a day, alone, in a small yard. Sarkozy may even be allowed visits 3 times every week.
The previous French presidents a number of authorized woes
Sarkozy has confronted a flurry of authorized woes since shedding his re-election bid in 2012.
He has additionally been convicted in two different instances.
In a single, he served a sentence for graft — over searching for to safe favors from a choose — beneath home arrest whereas carrying an digital ankle tag, which was eliminated after a number of months in Might.
In one other, France’s high court docket is to rule subsequent month in a case through which he’s accused of unlawful marketing campaign financing in 2012.
Within the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors stated his aides, performing in Sarkozy’s title, struck a cope with Qaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators imagine that in return, Qaddafi was promised assist to revive his worldwide picture after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and one other over Niger in 1989, killing a whole lot of passengers.
Thomas SAMSON/Gamma-Rapho/Getty 
The court docket convicted him of felony conspiracy over the plan, nevertheless it didn’t conclude that Sarkozy acquired or used the funds for his marketing campaign.
It acquitted him on costs of embezzling Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral marketing campaign.
Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, his Legion of Honor, following the sooner graft conviction.
Six out of 10 folks in France imagine the jail sentence to be “truthful,” in line with a survey of greater than 1,000 adults performed by pollster Elabe. However Sarkozy nonetheless enjoys assist on the French proper and has occasionally had personal conferences with President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the Elysee Palace on Friday, telling the press this week: “It was regular, on a human degree, for me to obtain one among my predecessors on this context.”
