Nicolas Sarkozy already knows the date and place where he will go to prison: October 21 at La Santé prison in Montparnasse, Paris, as revealed by Le Figaro. The first former French president to be imprisoned will serve a five-year sentence for "criminal association" in the "Libyan connection" case (money received from Muammar Gaddafi's regime for his 2007 presidential campaign).
La Santé is one of the most well-known prisons in France and has a VIP area and a maximum-security area. Sarkozy, 70, had to complete a health questionnaire on Monday before learning the conditions of his imprisonment, likely in a private cell with a television and bathroom.
The former president has warned, however, that this is "not the end of the story" and has announced that he will appeal the sentence once he enters prison. Sarkozy was supported today in his final appearance before the Paris courts by his wife, Carla Bruni, who has been by his side throughout the process.
Two of the convicted individuals in the "Libyan connection" case, intermediary Alexandre Djouhri and banker Wahib Nacer, have been serving their sentences since September 25. Sarkozy, however, benefited from a delay in knowing his sentence to "make his professional arrangements" and was summoned on October 13 to learn the date of his imprisonment.
The prosecutor had requested seven years in prison for the former president, but the court dropped the charges of "passive corruption" and "illegal financing." However, the court's president, Nathalie Gavarino, emphasized the "exceptional seriousness" of the facts, given the evidence that Sarkozy "allowed his close collaborators to act to obtain financial support."
The sentence with "provisional execution" (without waiting for a possible appeal resolution) had a strong impact on the political world and triggered a wave of hate messages and death threats against the judges, as happened last March with the five-year ban from public office for misappropriation of European funds for National Rally leader Marine Le Pen.
Prominent members of The Republicans, the traditional right-wing party that still sees Sarkozy as a political reference, openly questioned the independence of the judiciary and criticized what they considered a "political process." Sarkozy himself continued to proclaim his innocence after learning of the sentence: "I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high."
In his two previous legal battles in 2021, for illegal financing and influence peddling, Sarkozy had ultimately managed to avoid prison, although he had to serve house arrest and wear an electronic monitoring device on his ankle to be located 24 hours a day.