Sarkozy behind bars as appeal proceeds

Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at La Santé prison shortly before ten in the morning and was led to a small cell in the isolation wing. The former French president begins a five-year sentence for conspiring to finance his 2007 campaign with money from Muammar Gaddafi’s regime, a verdict he continues to contest.

Outside his home in the 16th arrondissement, supporters gathered after an online call from his son Louis. Another son, Pierre, asked for quiet solidarity rather than confrontation. On social media, Sarkozy told followers that truth would prevail and cast his imprisonment as an injustice borne out of vengeance. Inside La Santé he is held apart from the general population for safety, with a bed, desk, shower, toilet and a small television, and a single hour allotted for exercise each day.

The symbolism is inescapable. France has not seen a former head of state jailed in modern times, and the comparisons now made with Philippe Pétain’s post-war incarceration and even the final hours of Louis XVI are part of the political theatre, not the legal one. What is certain is the severity of the court’s language when it ordered immediate custody, citing the exceptional gravity of the facts.

Sarkozy insists he received no Libyan cash personally. The court convicted him for criminal association in relation to clandestine funding, and named close allies Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant in a network of contacts that included Gaddafi’s security apparatus and the Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine, who died shortly before the verdict. The legal arguments will now move to the appeal bench, but the immediate chapter is being written inside a 19th-century prison south of the Seine.

The political establishment has responded cautiously. Ahead of his incarceration Sarkozy was received at the Élysée Palace, a gesture President Emmanuel Macron later framed as simple courtesy to a predecessor. The Justice Minister has spoken of ensuring the former president’s safety and the proper functioning of the prison system. Outside the executive, reaction divides along familiar lines: overdue accountability to some, judicial overreach to others.

For Sarkozy the coming months will be austere. He has said he wants no privilege. He took two books with him, including a life of Jesus and The Count of Monte Cristo, a tale of wrongful imprisonment that will not be lost on his supporters. France will now watch two processes in parallel: a prisoner settling into a routine under strict rules and a legal fight continuing in the higher courts.

For more independent coverage of crime and justice, follow EyeOnLondon. We’d love to hear your views in the comments.

[Image Credit | Reuters]

Follow us on:

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest videos and updates!

We value your thoughts! Share your feedback and help us make EyeOnLondon even better!