{"id":136454,"date":"2025-10-21T17:07:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/136454\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T17:07:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T17:07:09","slug":"nicolas-sarkozy-begins-five-year-prison-sentence-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/136454\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Sarkozy begins five-year prison sentence \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicolas Sarkozy<\/a> began a five-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy in a campaign financing scandal on Tuesday, while preparing his appeal from behind bars.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy (70), is the first former French<\/a> president to serve time in prison, in a case that has sparked shock waves in France.<\/p>\n

The ruling marks a dramatic fall from grace for the former leader, but has also proved divisive owing to judges\u2019 decision to jail him before all appeals had been exhausted.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for Sarkozy said they would now start proceedings to request his provisional release, which could take up to two months to examine.<\/p>\n

The case centres on accusations that Sarkozy and two aides took millions from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gadafy to fund his 2007 presidential campaign. Judges cleared the right-wing politician of several more serious charges of embezzlement and illegal campaign financing. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sarkozy\u2019s jail sentence a turning point in France\u2019s struggle with political graftOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a former president of the republic who is being jailed this morning, it\u2019s an innocent man,\u201d Sarkozy said in a statement on X while a convoy of cars sped him to Paris\u2019s historic La Sant\u00e9 Prison.<\/p>\n

A few dozen people clapped in support as he left his home with his wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.<\/p>\n

The former president will be isolated from other inmates for his own security, his lawyer Christophe Ingrain told BFM TV. La Sant\u00e9 is known for housing late Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 G\u00e9n\u00e9rale rogue trader J\u00e9rome Kerviel and even, for a brief stint, poet Guillaume Apollinaire. <\/p>\n

The case has cast a spotlight on Sarkozy\u2019s outsize influence on French politics even after his presidency ended in 2012. Current justice minister G\u00e9rald Darmanin, who had previously worked for Mr Sarkozy, said this week he was \u201csaddened\u201d by his plight \u201con a human level\u201d. <\/p>\n

French president Emmanuel Macron met Sarkozy last week before his incarceration, the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace said, without saying what was discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very clear in public about the independence of judicial authorities … but it was normal that on a human level I should receive one of my predecessors in this context,\u201d Mr Macron told reporters on Monday in Slovenia.<\/p>\n

Nicolas Sarkozy waves goodbye to supporters gathered near his Paris home as his convoy left for La Sant\u00e9 prison. He was sentenced to five years in jail. <\/p>\n

Sarkozy called the verdict a \u201cviolation of the rule of law\u201d in a series of newspaper interviews before his incarceration.<\/p>\n

His lawyers have already launched an appeal against the verdict.<\/p>\n

After the ruling was read out in September, a livid Sarkozy decried it as \u201cscandalous\u201d and said he was the victim of a hate campaign. The verdict includes a \u20ac100,000 fine.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy has underscored that judges had not been able to prove any personal enrichment in the case, and said the conspiracy charge was tenuous, based on the allegation that he had allowed aides to envisage a possible Libyan financing.<\/p>\n

But Sarkozy\u2019s outcry over the terms of his conviction has caused a stir in itself and alarmed some constitutionalists. The judge who pronounced the verdict received death threats in late September, prompting concerns from magistrates\u2019 unions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rule of law is the foundation of our democracy,\u201d Mr Macron said on X at the time, calling the threats unacceptable. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, R\u00e9my Heitz, a prosecutor with the court of appeal, told France Info radio that Darmanin\u2019s promise to visit Mr Sarkozy in prison as justice minister to check on his safety could be problematic, and could \u201caffect magistrates\u2019 independence\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other politicians have also seized on the case, including far-right leader Marine Le Pen. She is under an immediate five-year ban on running for office, pending her appeal, after her conviction earlier this year for embezzling EU funds. She called the \u201cgeneralisation\u201d of moves to immediately apply sanctions, like in Sarkozy\u2019s case, a \u201cgreat danger\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy has been convicted for other offences, including in a separate illegal financing case, and been subject to travel restrictions and made to wear an electronic bracelet as a result. <\/p>\n

The former president has told friends \u201cthe end of the story has not been written\u201d in the Libyan affair, including at a goodbye event in Paris in early October, his former communications adviser Franck Louvrier said. Some 150 former work colleagues, relatives and even current culture minister Rachida Dati attended. <\/p>\n

Sarkozy told French media he was taking a biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas\u2019 tale of an imprisoned hero, the Count of Monte Christo, to read.<\/p>\n

Sarkozy was \u2018\u2018very resilient and combative,\u2019\u2019 Louvrier said. \u2018\u2018He\u2019s in campaign mode to show his innocence\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Sarkozy began a five-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy in a campaign financing scandal on Tuesday, while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,6586,13,14,2220,6,11,12,56842,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-136454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-emmanuel-macron","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-libya","18":"tag-main-news","19":"tag-mainnews","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-world","24":"tag-world-news","25":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}