Sarkozy prison date to be set. Here’s why the former French president will serve time despite appeal
PARIS (AP) — The arrest date for Nicolas Sarkozy will be set Monday following the arrest of the former French president. sentenced to five years in prison on charges of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 victory campaign with funds from Libya.
Sarkozy, 70, says he is innocent. He called the decision “scandalous” and appealed. He is the first former president of modern France to be sentenced to real time imprisonment.
Sarkozy was also included several other legal casesHe was president of France from 2007 to 2012. Although he has been retired from active politics for years, he remains quite influential, especially in conservative circles.
Why will Sarkozy go to jail?
In a surprise decision, the Paris court said the prison sentence, which would normally be suspended on appeal, would come into effect immediately.
The court declared that Sarkozy should be imprisoned without delay “due to the serious disruption of public order caused by the crime.”
Still, Sarkozy was given 18 days to “organize his professional life” after the decision before being summoned by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office to set a date for imprisonment.
Sarkozy’s supporters criticized the decision because Sarkozy is presumed innocent under French law since he appealed.
The debate was recently reignited after far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced to prison in March. Five-year ban on running for public office It will come into force immediately, despite his objection, for embezzlement of EU funds.
Sarkozy’s case does not appear to be an exception in the French judicial system. The justice department said 90% of adults convicted and sentenced to at least two years in prison in 2024 were immediately incarcerated.
What was Sarkozy accused of?
The court said Sarkozy used his position as presidential candidate and interior minister to “prepare corruption at the highest level” from 2005 to 2007, financing his presidential campaign with funds from Libya, then ruled by long-ruling Muammar Gaddafi.
The three-judge panel noted that Sarkozy’s closest associates, Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, held secret meetings in 2005 with Gaddafi’s brother-in-law and intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senoussi, even though they were “convicted of terrorist acts committed mostly against French and European citizens.”
Al-Senoussi is considered the mastermind of the attacks on a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and on a French airliner over Niger the following year, which killed hundreds of people. He was convicted by a Paris court and sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack on French UTA Flight 772 in 1999.
The court also said there was evidence that Sarkozy supported discussions between Guéant, his then-private secretary, and an intermediary who could provide confidential financial arrangements.
Why does he say it’s a conspiracy?
Sarkozy has repeatedly said that he is innocent and that he was the victim of a “conspiracy” organized by some people linked to the Libyan government, including those he described as the “Gaddafi clan”.
He suggested the campaign finance allegations were in retaliation for his call as president of France for Gaddafi’s removal.
Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders to press for military intervention in Libya in 2011, when Arab Spring pro-democracy protests swept the Arab world. Gaddafi was overthrown and killed in the uprising that same year, ending his four-decade rule over the North African country.
Sarkozy also insists the court cleared him of three other charges, including passive corruption, illegal campaign financing and concealing the embezzlement of public funds.
The court stated that there was no evidence that the money transferred from Libya to France was used in Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign, and accepted that this money did not serve Sarkozy’s “direct personal enrichment”.
what’s next
For security reasons, Sarkozy is expected to be incarcerated in a special area called the “VIP area” of La Santé prison, the only prison in Paris, under conditions reserved for high-profile inmates. This is where some of France’s most notorious criminals are imprisoned.
Sarkozy will be able to apply for release to the appeals court while he is behind bars. Judges will have up to two months to process the request.
The appeal hearing will be held at a later date, possibly next spring.
French business owner Pierre Botton, a friend of Sarkozy, spent almost four years in prison in two separate cases from 2020 to 2022, including in La Santé.
He described incarceration as a “violent” shock “for anyone,” speaking on France Info news broadcaster after the rulings.
He said Sarkozy would likely spend a week in the arrival area to be “evaluated” and then be transferred to what is called a “zone for vulnerable persons” for security reasons.
Botton said Sarkozy would likely remain alone in his prison cell, which is equipped with a shower, toilet, small heating element, refrigerator and television. Botton said he had access to a special phone that he had to pay to use.
