Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will begin serving a five-year sentence at Paris' Sante Prison next week, the news agency reported on Monday (October 13). He is suspected of conspiring with the former Libyan regime to illegally finance his 2007 presidential campaign.
｜Extended reading｜French court sentences former president to five years in prison for illegal political donations
According to French radio station RTL, this is Sarkozy's third conviction for fraud-related offenses, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence next Tuesday (21st). The Paris Financial Prosecutor's Office "can neither confirm nor deny" the news, and Sarkozy's lawyers declined to comment.
Sarkozy served as French president from 2007 to 2012. A leading figure in the conservative party, he championed pension reforms (raising the pension age from 60 to 62) and the Union for the Mediterranean. The court found Sarkozy guilty of criminal conspiracy in 2007 for conspiring with his aides to finance the elections of then-Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
The verdict stated that considering the "extreme seriousness" of the case, the court decided to impose a prison sentence; Sarkozy has always maintained his innocence and accused the case of being politically motivated. If he is actually imprisoned, Sarkozy will become the mostThe first former president to serve his sentence in prison following a criminal convictionAlthough former President Jacques Chirac was also convicted of corruption, he did not actually serve his sentence.
In addition to this case, Sarkozy was sentenced to three years in prison for "corruption and abuse of power" in 2021, one of which he had to serve; he was also sentenced in 2023 for illegal use of campaign funds.
