Former French president begins five-year prison term

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has entered a Paris prison to begin a five-year sentence after being found guilty of conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.

Sarkozy got into a car to go to La Santé prison, the capital of France, to begin his sentence; This was a staggering decline for a man who was president of France between 2007 and 2012.

The court ordered the conservative former leader to be jailed after finding him guilty of conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.

Sarkozy will be the first former French leader to be imprisoned since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after World War II.

“I want to tell (the French people) with unwavering strength that it is not a former president who is imprisoned this morning, but an innocent man,” he wrote in a long message posted on social media platform X on Tuesday.

Sarkozy’s conviction caps years of legal battles over allegations that he received millions of dollars in cash during his 2007 campaign from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings.

While Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring with his close aides to organize this plan, he was acquitted of personally receiving or using the funds.

He has consistently denied any wrongdoing and said the case was politically motivated.

His brother Guillaume Sarkozy, who was among Sarkozy’s relatives and supporters who applauded him as he went to prison, said in a statement to BFM TV, “I am very proud of him, I am proud that he went to prison with his head held high and I firmly believe in his innocence.”