Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to begin serving a five-year prison sentence in Paris next week, following a court ruling last month.
The Correctional Tribunal of Paris found Sarkozy guilty of participating in a criminal scheme to illegally finance his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy, 70, who served as France’s right-wing president from 2007 to 2012, will become the first former head of an EU country to serve a prison term.
He had previously made history as the first convicted former French president to wear an electronic tag in a separate corruption case involving attempts to secure favors from a judge.
He is expected to be housed in La Santé prison’s special wing for vulnerable prisoners, which provides a single-person cell, three weekly visits, one hour of daily exercise, and separation from the general prison population.
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The former president continues to deny wrongdoing, calling the conviction a matter of “extreme gravity for the rule of law in the country” and vowing to fight the sentence “till his last breath.”
He has the right to appeal, but under French law’s “provisory execution” principle, the sentence will be enforced while the appeals process unfolds—expected to conclude in roughly two months, with a potential new trial in about six months.
The case stems from allegations that Libya secretly contributed €50 million to Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.
In 2012, the French news outlet Mediapart published a leaked Libyan government document signed by former intelligence chief Moussa Koussa, addressed to Muammar Gaddafi’s chief of staff, Bashir Saleh, indicating Libyan support. Sarkozy challenged the document as forged, but expert analysis later deemed it likely authentic.
Sarkozy’s imprisonment marks a historic moment in European politics, highlighting the legal accountability of former state leaders and drawing attention to longstanding allegations of illicit campaign financing.
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