Defiant Sarkozy begins jail sentence as lawyer says he will be held in solitary confinement – Europe live | World news
Sarkozy arrives at La Santé prison
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday to start a five-year prison term, Reuters reports.
Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his electoral campaign.
He walked out of his home hand-in-hand with his singer wife, Carla Bruni, and left in a car escorted by police on motorbikes.
The ex-president was reported by the Associated Press (AP) as saying “an innocent man is being locked up” while on his way to prison.
Key events
European leaders back Trump’s call for Ukraine peace talks
Elsewhere, European leaders issued a joint statement with Ukraine on Tuesday backing US president Donald Trump’s call for peace talks to begin based on the current frontline with Russia, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Trump is seeking to broker a peace deal to end the three-and-a-half-year war, triggered by Russia’s 2022 invasion. Last week, he called on Moscow and Kyiv to stop the fighting “where they are” after talks with both sides.
“We strongly support president Trump’s position that the fighting should stop immediately, and that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” said a statement signed by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, EU chiefs Antonio Costa and Ursula von der Leyen, France’s Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Britain’s Keir Starmer and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni.
“We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,” said the leaders, who also included those of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland.
EU leaders are set to close ranks in support of Ukraine at a Brussels summit on Thursday – followed a day later by a “coalition of the willing” meeting of European leaders in London to discuss the next steps to help Kyiv.
Trump has announced his intention to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in Budapest in coming weeks, but it was not clear whether Zelensky – who was shut out from the previous meeting in August in Alaska – would attend.
The leaders on Tuesday said:
We are clear that Ukraine must be in the strongest possible position – before, during, and after any ceasefire.
We must ramp up the pressure on Russia’s economy and its defence industry, until Putin is ready to make peace.
Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said the ex-president will remain in prison for at least three weeks to a month, after confirming a request had been immediately filed for his release, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
The Paris appeals court in theory has two months to decide whether to free him pending an appeals trial, but the delay is usually shorter.
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012.
He has been convicted in two separate trials. In one, he served a sentence for graft under house arrest while wearing an electronic ankle tag, which was removed after several months in May, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said his aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, struck a deal with the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later.
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a passenger jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
The court convicted him of criminal conspiracy over the plan.
The son of a Hungarian immigrant, Sarkozy became president in 2007, pledging to shake things up with pro-business reforms that would reinvigorate France’s stagnant economy and elevate the country to the top table of global players, Reuters reports.
Those efforts were quickly upended by the 2008-2009 economic crisis, and voters gave him little credit for raising the retirement age to 62 from 60 and loosening rules requiring a maximum 35-hour work week.
The sentencing of Nicolas Sarkozy reflected a shift in France’s approach to white-collar crime. In the 1990s and 2000s, many convicted politicians avoided prison altogether, Reuters reports.
Despite his legal troubles, Sarkozy’s political influence has proved resilient as French society has shifted to the right.
President Emmanuel Macron, who had warm relations with Sarkozy and Bruni, said on Monday he had met Sarkozy ahead of his incarceration. Justice minister Gérald Darmanin said he would visit him in prison.
That angered left-wing politicians who said Macron and Darmanin were breaching judicial independence.
A lawyer for Nicolas Sarkozy said a motion had been filed for his release moments after the former French president entered jail, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
Attorney Christophe Ingrain told reporters:
A request has been filed for Nicolas Sarkozy’s release.
Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said during sentencing that the offences were of “exceptional gravity”, and therefore ordered Sarkozy to be jailed even if he filed an appeal.
Nicolas Sarkozy had already been stripped of France’s highest distinction, his Legion of Honour, after his conviction for corruption was confirmed last year.
Six out of 10 people in France believe the prison sentence to be “fair”, according to a survey of more than 1,000 adults conducted by pollster Elabe, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
But Sarkozy still enjoys support on the French right and has on occasion had private meetings with president Emmanuel Macron.
Macron welcomed Sarkozy to the Élysée Palace on Friday, a government source said, a decision the French president defended on Monday.
Macron said:
It was normal, on a human level, for me to receive one of my predecessors in this context.
Below are the latest photographs from Paris this morning coming through over the wires:
Angelique Chrisafis
Angelique Chrisafis is the Guardian’s Paris correspondent.
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has entered a prison in Paris, after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed.
Sarkozy, who has appealed against his conviction, had sought to avoid being photographed at the gates of La Santé prison in the south of Paris. Instead, he organised a highly stage-managed departure from his home in the west of Paris where he walked on foot with his wife, the singer Carla Bruni, to greet crowds gathered to in the street outside his home.
First his children, led by Giulia, his 14-year-old daughter with Bruni, slowly walked from his home to greet well-wishers. Louis Sarkozy, one of Sarkozy’s sons, who is preparing to run for mayor in Menton on the French Riviera next spring, had called for supporters to demonstrate in the street. Some shouted “Nicolas! Nicolas!” At the same time, Sarkozy’s social media account published a message in which he said: “I am innocent”, and his imprisonment was a “judicial scandal”.
Sarkozy was found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy over a scheme to seek funding from the regime of Gaddafi for his victorious 2007 French presidential election campaign.
You can read the full piece from Angelique Chrisafis here: Nicolas Sarkozy enters prison to begin five-year sentence over campaign funds
Request for freedom filed for Sarkozy, lawyer says
French ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyer says he has filed a request for freedom, Reuters reports.
Under the ruling, the 70-year-old was only able to file a request for release to the appeals court once he was behind bars, and judges then have up to two months to process it.
The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to “the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offence”.
Shortly after he stepped into a car to head to La Santé, Nicolas Sarkozy published a long message on X in which he claimed to be a victim of revenge and hatred.
He said:
As I prepare to step outside the walls of La Santé prison, my thoughts go out to the French people of all walks of life and opinions.
I want to tell them with my unwavering strength that it’s not a former President of the Republic being locked up this morning, it’s an innocent man.
I will continue to denounce this judicial scandal, this ordeal I’ve endured for over 10 years. This is a case of illegal financing without any funding!
A long-term judicial investigation launched on the basis of a document whose falsity has now been proven. I’m not asking for any advantage, any favor.
I’m not to be pitied, because my voice carries. I’m not to be pitied because my wife and children are by my side, and my friends are countless.
But this morning, I feel a deep sorrow for France, which finds itself humiliated by the expression of a vengeance that has taken hatred to an unprecedented level.
I have no doubt. The truth will triumph. But the price to pay will have been crushing.
Nicolas Sarkozy’s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons, the Associated Press (AP) reports.
His lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration “strengthens his determination, it strengthens his rage to prove that he is innocent.”
Ingrain said Sarkozy is planning to write a book about his prison experience.
Jean-Michel Darrois, another of Sarkozy’s lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself “mentally prepared” to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.
Darrois said on France Info news broadcaster.
First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it’s cold in prison, and earplugs because it’s very noisy.
Isolation like what he’s going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.
Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper:
I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé.
I’ll fight till the end.
The paper said Sarkozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and the 10 family photos he is allowed to bring.
Dozens of supporters stood outside Nicolas Sarkozy’s home from early Tuesday, some holding up framed portraits of him, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
They sang the French national anthem, as neighbours looked on from their balconies.
“Nicolas, Nicolas! Free Nicolas,” shouted a crowd who gathered in the road outside to show their support.
Flora Amanou, 41, said she had closely followed both of Sarkozy’s presidential campaigns:
This is truly a sad day for France and for democracy. This trial is based on nothing.
Sarkozy arrives at La Santé prison
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at La Santé prison in Paris on Tuesday to start a five-year prison term, Reuters reports.
Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his electoral campaign.
He walked out of his home hand-in-hand with his singer wife, Carla Bruni, and left in a car escorted by police on motorbikes.
The ex-president was reported by the Associated Press (AP) as saying “an innocent man is being locked up” while on his way to prison.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of Europe.
France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy is to be jailed on Tuesday after being found guilty of acquiring Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.
France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012 was handed a five-year jail term in September for criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his electoral campaign.
The 70-year-old, who has appealed against the verdict and denounced an “injustice”, is to be incarcerated in La Santé prison in Paris.
“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison – but with my head held high,” he told the press after his 25 September verdict.
Sarkozy’s family has called for supporters to show solidarity with the former head of state as he leaves his Paris home for prison on Tuesday.
Sarkozy will be the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after the second world war.
He has told Le Figaro, a right-leaning newspaper, that 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.
In other developments:
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French police stepped up the hunt Tuesday for thieves who stole priceless royal jewels from the Louvre museum in a spectacular daylight robbery. As the museum remained closed for a second day Monday, officials said 60 investigators were working on the theory that an organised crime group was behind the raid in which nine pieces of jewellery were taken.
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Russia’s air defence units destroyed 55 Ukrainian drones overnight, RIA news agency reported on Tuesday, citing data from the Russian defence ministry.
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Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart Marco Rubio discussed preparations for an upcoming summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in a call on Monday, both sides said. Rubio “emphasised the importance of upcoming engagements as an opportunity for Moscow and Washington to collaborate on advancing a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,” principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott said in a statement.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has painted his meeting last week with Donald Trump as a success that yielded progress on acquiring new air defence systems, a contrast from reports that Trump had berated him with obscenities in the White House. In comments to the media on Sunday that were embargoed until Monday, the Ukrainian president described Trump’s message at the meeting as “positive”, even though Zelenskyy did not secure Tomahawk cruise missiles.
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Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” before the expected summit between Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Hungary, amid mounting European disquiet over Ukraine’s exclusion from the Budapest meeting. Zelenskyy said the aim of the London visit was to win security guarantees for Kyiv and there would be “many meetings and negotiations in Europe” this week.
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A new Russian attack on the Ukrainian border region of Chernihiv on Monday knocked out power to stretches of territory in the north of the country, including the main town outside the decommissioned Chornobyl nuclear power station, officials said. The local power company in the region, Chernihivoblenergo, said the latest assault targeted an energy site, but did not identify it.
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A tornado tore through districts north of Paris on Monday, toppling three construction cranes that killed one person and left four others with critical injuries, authorities said. The town of Ermont, about 20km (13 miles) north-east of Paris was worst hit by the sudden twister that caused damage across about 10 districts.
