Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has claimed “an innocent man is being locked up” as he began a five-year prison sentence over the financing of his 2007 presidential campaign.
Sarkozy is challenging both his conviction and a judge’s unusual decision to jail him while he appeals, while his fall from grace from the presidential Elysée Palace to Paris’s notorious La Santé prison grips France.
The first former leader of modern France to be jailed, Sarkozy walked hand in hand with his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, on Tuesday as they joined their children and grandchildren outside their home in front of a crowd of reporters.
As he made his way to prison, Sarkozy said: “An innocent man is being locked up.”
Hundreds of supporters gathered in Sarkozy’s upscale Paris neighbourhood, applauding, chanting “Nicolas, Nicolas,” and singing the French national anthem.
Two French flags hung on a nearby fence read: “Courage Nicolas, come back soon,” and “True France with Nicolas.”
Sarkozy’s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.
“I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper on Saturday. “I’ll fight till the end.”
He was accused of funding his 2007 presidential campaign with millions of euros from Libya in return for diplomatic favours between 2005 and 2007.
The claims date back to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Muammar Gaddafi himself alleged that Libya had secretly channelled money into Sarkozy’s campaign.
In a surprise ruling in September, the court ordered Sarkozy to begin serving his sentence immediately, due to “the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offence”.
Under the ruling, the 70-year-old can only apply for release once in prison, and judges will have up to two months to consider his request.
Embattled centrist President Emmanuel Macron hosted the conservative former leader at the Elysée Palace last week.
“I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but it was normal on a human level to receive one of my predecessors in this context,” Macron said on Monday.
There are only two previous cases of former French leaders being imprisoned, and neither offers much comfort for Sarkozy.
The most recent was Marshal Philippe Pétain, the First World War hero who later led the mostly Nazi-controlled Vichy regime from 1940 to 1944. He was jailed in 1945 after being convicted of treason for collaborating with Germany.
The only other instance dates back to the 18th century, when King Louis XVI was arrested on August 13, 1792 and held in the Temple fortress in Paris. He was later convicted of high treason and crimes against the state.
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