Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy entered the Parisian prison of La Santé this Tuesday to serve the five-year prison sentence imposed almost a month ago for the illegal financing of his 2007 electoral campaign with funds from the Libyan government of Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, 70, left his home in the 16th arrondissement of Paris at 9:10 in the morning, accompanied by his wife Carla Bruni, his children and brothers.
At the doors of the building, dozens of supporters said goodbye to him with applause and songs of La Marseillaise, the agency reported. EFE.
The former president traveled by car to the penitentiary center, where he arrived at 9:39, escorted by a strong security device and followed by television cameras that broadcast their journey live.
Sarkozy: “The truth will triumph”
Upon arrival, some curious onlookers shouted “Welcome Sarkozy!” and “Sarkozy is here!”, while others asked about his wife, he said. EFE.
Moments before entering prison, Sarkozy published a message on his social networks in which he stated that he faces the process “with unbreakable strength.” that characterizes him and claimed to be the victim of a “judicial scandal.”
“It is not a former president of the Republic who is being imprisoned this morning, but an innocent man. I will continue to denounce this ordeal of the cross that I have suffered for more than ten years. The truth will triumph, but the price will be devastating,” he wrote.
His imprisonment — the first in history for a former president of the French Republic and the European Union — It has shocked French society and captured the attention of national and international media.
— Nicolas Sarkozy (@NicolasSarkozy) October 21, 2025
Defense and possible release
The former president’s lawyers announced that They will submit a request for release “very quickly”trusting that the appeal court will accept it.
Christophe Ingrain, one of his defenders, explained to BFMTV that “there will be no preferential treatment” and that the decision could be known within three or four weeks.
During that time, Sarkozy will remain detained in La Santé, where – according to his team – he plans to dedicate himself to write about your experience and the “injustice” of which you consider yourself a victim.
If the request is accepted, he could spend Christmas at home and prepare in freedom for the appeal trial, scheduled for March 2026.
Condemnation and political context
The former president was sentenced on September 25 to five years in prison – two of them permanent – for association of criminals and for allowing his collaborators to manage illegal funds from the Libyan Government to finance his 2007 campaign.
Last Friday, the current president Emmanuel Macron He received Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace, and described the meeting as “normal from a human point of view.”
The case, which has been under investigation for more than a decade, has put the transparency of political financing and the independence of the judiciary at the center of the French debate.
