Former French president to begin serving his sentence next week

Tengrinews.kz – Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was sentenced to five years in prison on September 25, will begin serving his term on October 21, after being found guilty in a case of illegal campaign financing, according to DW.

Sarkozy will serve his sentence in La Santé Prison in Paris.

The Paris Financial Prosecutor’s Office outlined the conditions of his detention: the ex-president will be placed in a “vulnerable persons” unit, in a single cell of nine square meters, reports France Info.

Sarkozy will be allowed three visits per week and permitted to use a mobile phone, but only to call numbers approved by law enforcement authorities.

If Sarkozy is indeed imprisoned, he will become the first postwar French leader — and the first former president of an EU country — to serve a prison term. However, since he is over 70 years old, he can request a sentence adjustment, such as house arrest with an electronic bracelet. The court must rule on such a request within two months.

On September 25, a Paris court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal conspiracy in the Libyan campaign financing case related to his 2007 presidential run, while acquitting him of other charges. He was also fined €100,000.

According to French prosecutors, the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi provided about €50 million to support Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign.

The trial began in November 2020.

In June 2024, French authorities stripped Sarkozy of the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit — the first such case since 1945 — following his corruption conviction. President Emmanuel Macron had opposed revoking the awards.