The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was sent to a Paris prison on Tuesday, the first time in more than half a century an ex-head of state has been jailed in the country.
Mr. Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring to seek funding for his 2007 presidential campaign from the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the former Libyan strongman, and was handed a five-year sentence last month.
Few observers expect him to serve the whole term, but his conviction has already prompted a fierce debate in the country. Judges involved in the case have been targeted on social media, with some receiving death threats, according to the president of Paris’s Court of Appeal, Jacques Boulard. The Paris public prosecutor, Laure Beccuau, spoke out against what she called an “outburst of hate” and said that an investigation had been opened.
Mr. Sarkozy, a former lawyer who quickly rose through the ranks of French politics, is known for his pugnacious energy — powered by an immutable morning run routine — and sharp wit. Since he stepped down from office in 2012, he has retained influence both within his own conservative party and with President Emmanuel Macron, whom he publicly supported during the last presidential elections in 2022.
Mr. Sarkozy, who has also been stripped of the Legion of Honor, France’s highest distinction, is adamant that he is innocent and has repeatedly questioned the verdict.
He will be confined to a cell at La Santé, a prison in southern Paris. To ensure his safety he will be placed in solitary confinement, Sébastien Cauwel, the head of the prison administration, said in a radio interview Tuesday morning. He will be allowed three visits per week and two walks per day, like any other inmate.
“It is not me who is humiliated, but France, by these practices that are so contrary to the rule of law,” Mr. Sarkozy said in an interview with a conservative magazine two days after he was convicted, insisting that the sentence was “as unjust as it is shameful.”
Earlier this month, at a gathering with his closest friends and colleagues, Mr. Sarkozy, who is partly of Jewish descent, compared himself to Alfred Dreyfus, the Jewish army captain arrested in 1894 on false espionage charges, according to French news media. “The end of the story is not written yet,” he was quoted saying.
Mr. Sarkozy has been entangled in several high-profile trials since he stepped down from office and has been found guilty of corruption, influence peddling and campaign spending violations.
But this case is by far the most serious, as reflected in the sentence, and the most convoluted. Last year, investigative journalists released a documentary named after one of Mr. Sarkozy’s comments about the case, “No one understands anything about it.”
Though Mr. Sarkozy was given some time to put his affairs in order before his incarceration, judges added a provision to the verdict that prevents him from being released even if he appeals the sentence, which is normally the case in France. Such a provision has increasingly been used by judges: In 2023, it was attached to 58 percent of jail sentences, according to a report from the Justice Ministry.
François-Xavier Bellamy, a lawmaker for the conservative Republicans in the European Parliament, called the trial’s outcome a “political verdict.” Geoffroy Didier, the vice president of the Republicans, said it reflected a clear attempt to “humiliate” the former president.
After the verdict, Mr. Macron reacted to the controversy with a social media post that called attacks against judges “unacceptable.” Still, the president met with Mr. Sarkozy last Friday, Mr. Macron’s office said.
In an editorial, the French daily Le Monde warned that Mr. Sarkozy’s reaction was fueling “a disastrous Trumpization of the debate in France,” at a time of growing political pressure on the judiciary worldwide.
Mr. Sarkozy’s legal troubles have also fanned the flames of a national debate over the case of Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader who was convicted of embezzlement and received a five-year electoral ban in April. At the time, despite the overwhelming evidence gathered to convict her, her supporters accused judges of tampering with electoral processes.
More than 70 percent of French people said they were shocked that judges received threats, according to a poll published this month, and 58 percent said they believed the judges’ verdict had been impartial.
Public support for Mr. Sarkozy grew in the days before his incarceration. His son organized a demonstration Tuesday morning in front of his home. The justice minister, Gérald Darmanin, said in a radio interview on Monday that he felt “a lot of sadness” for Mr. Sarkozy and that he would visit him in prison. Rachida Dati, the culture minister, said the ex-president was “like family.”
Mr. Sarkozy can immediately file a request for an early release, which his lawyer, Jean-Michel Darrois, said he intended to do. Requests are evaluated within two months. In accordance with the usual six-month deadline for appeal trials, that of Mr. Sarkozy is to take place before the end of March, after that of Ms. Le Pen, which is expected to end by mid-February.
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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