Paris: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will serve jail time at a Paris prison from October 21, informed sources told AFP Monday, after a court last month sentenced him to five years behind bars for criminal conspiracy.
The 70-year-old, who will be the first French postwar leader and the first former head of a European Union country to go to jail, will serve time at the La Sante prison in Paris, they said.Sarkozy, France’s leader from 2007 to 2012, was convicted in late September over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.
Extra security measures are expected to ensure his safety in prison, with Sarkozy possibly placed in a unit for vulnerable prisoners or held in solitary confinement.Earlier Monday, he arrived at the financial prosecutor’s office in Paris to learn the details of his upcoming incarceration.
He arrived in a car with tinted windows, then left again three-quarters of an hour later without making a comment, AFP journalists saw.An AFP photographer then saw him return home.
Sarkozy has denied the charges and appealed against his conviction.The former president immediately appealed his conviction in September and a new trial is expected in the coming months.The Paris appeals court has up to 18 months to organise it.Once jailed, his lawyers can petition the appeals court for his release but he will remain in custody unless it decides otherwise.
