by Janice McAllister
Nicolas Sarkozy becomes the first French ex-president since WWII to be jailed, insisting on his innocence as he begins a controversial sentence for illegal campaign financing.
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president from 2007 to 2012, has made history — but not the kind he had hoped for. On the morning of October 21, 2025, Sarkozy entered La Santé prison in Paris to begin serving a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy in a case involving illicit Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential campaign. He is the first former head of state in modern French history to go behind bars, a fate not seen since the jailing of Marshal Philippe Pétain in 1945.
The moment was both surreal and solemn. Surrounded by tight security and escorted by police, Sarkozy arrived at the notorious 19th-century prison at 9:40am, following an emotional departure from his home in the upscale 16th arrondissement, hand-in-hand with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Dozens of supporters applauded as he left, responding to a call from his son Louis for a show of unity and “love — nothing else” from his brother Pierre.
Although convicted, Sarkozy continues to reject all wrongdoing. In a defiant post on X just before entering prison, he wrote: “It is not a former president they are locking up this morning — it is an innocent man.” Expressing sorrow not for himself but for “a France humiliated by a will for revenge,” he added, “Truth will prevail, but how crushing the price will have been.”
Despite his status, Sarkozy has declined special privileges at La Santé. He will remain in isolation for his own safety, separated from a general population that includes drug traffickers and terror convicts. His 9-square-meter cell includes a desk, bed, toilet, shower, and a small television. He will be permitted one hour of solo exercise per day.
The sentence stems from his alleged association with a secret network that facilitated millions of euros in undeclared campaign funds from the regime of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. While Sarkozy was cleared of directly receiving money, the court found him guilty of criminal conspiracy alongside two former aides — Brice Hortefeux and Claude Guéant — who met with Gaddafi’s intelligence chief in 2005 through Franco-Lebanese intermediary Ziad Takieddine. Takieddine, a key figure in the investigation, died in Lebanon just before Sarkozy’s conviction.
His imprisonment is still provisional, as he has lodged an appeal and is legally presumed innocent until the process is complete. However, due to the “exceptional seriousness” of the charges, the court ruled he must begin serving his sentence without delay.
President Emmanuel Macron, in a rare gesture of political unity, received Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace shortly before his incarceration. “On a human level, it was normal,” Macron said. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, a Sarkozy loyalist, also announced plans to visit the former president in prison, stating, “I cannot be insensitive to a man’s distress.”
In recent interviews, Sarkozy projected a stoic resolve: “I’m not afraid of prison,” he told La Tribune. “I’ll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates.” He brought two books with him: Jean-Christian Petitfils’s biography of Jesus, and The Count of Monte Cristo — Dumas’s tale of unjust imprisonment and eventual revenge.
Now, behind the walls of La Santé, one of France’s most controversial political chapters continues — with a former president behind bars, a nation divided, and the truth, perhaps, still unfolding.
(Associated Medias) – all rights reserved
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