{"id":2501346,"date":"2025-10-21T09:58:02","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-french-president-enters-prison-for-criminal-conspiracy\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T09:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T13:59:14","slug":"former-french-president-enters-prison-for-criminal-conspiracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-french-president-enters-prison-for-criminal-conspiracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Former French president enters prison for criminal conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fformer-french-president-enters-prison-for-criminal-conspiracy%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2501346&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has begun serving a five-year prison sentence in Paris for <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >criminal conspiracy related<\/a> to illegally financing his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from Libya. This marks the first time a modern French ex-president has been imprisoned. Sarkozy, 70, entered La Sant\u00e9 prison, where he will be held in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/4-of-the-most-morally-bankrupt-lies-anti-israel-pundits-are-spreading-about-hostage-swap\/\" title=\"4 Lies Anti-Israel Pundits Spread on Hostage Swap\">solitary confinement due<\/a> to security concerns.He denies the charges, calling the conviction a judicial scandal and insists on his innocence, vowing to fight the sentence.His incarceration has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cnn-investigates-story-of-syrian-prisoner-getting-rescued-in-its-viral-video-washington-examiner\/\" title=\"CNN investigates story of Syrian ...er getting \u2018rescued\u2019 in its viral video - Washington Examiner\">drawn meaningful public attention<\/a>, with many supporters protesting and expressing pride in his conduct. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged the emotional impact of the situation but emphasized the need for judicial independence.Sarkozy&#8217;s lawyers have promptly sought his release pending appeal,but the court ruled he must begin serving his sentence without delay as of the severity of the offense.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-header-search-button-mob dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><span class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-button\"><i class=\"tdb-mobile-menu-icon td-icon-mobile\"><\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search\" aria-labelledby=\"td-header-search-button\">\n<div class=\"tdb-drop-down-search-inner\">\n<form method=\"get\" class=\"tdb-search-form\" action=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><\/form>\n<div class=\"tdb-aj-search\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/#\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"Search\" class=\"tdb-head-search-btn dropdown-toggle\" data-toggle=\"dropdown\"><i class=\"tdb-search-icon td-icon-search\"><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<h1 class=\"tdb-title-text\">Former French President Sarkozy begins five-year prison sentence for campaign finance conspiracy<\/h1>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-title-line\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\">\n<div id=\"Brid_2378122\" class=\"tpd-featured-video bridtv\"><\/div>\n<p><strong>PARIS (AP) &mdash;<\/strong> Former French President&nbsp;Nicolas Sarkozy&nbsp;entered a prison in Paris on Tuesday to begin serving a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/france-sarkozy-corruption-libya-verdict-37db44a58adfee8c640ff5e9ba5688de\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">five-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy<\/a>&nbsp;to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya &mdash; a historic moment that makes him the first ex-leader of modern France&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sarkozy-prison-france-former-president-adc8d96a3c638af34d6830b4e32d5c93\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to be imprisoned<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy, 70, was greeted by hundreds of supporters when he walked out of his Paris home earlier in the day hand-in-hand with his wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. He embraced her before getting into a police car.<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommended-stories\">\n<h2>Recommended Stories<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3857921\/japan-sanae-takaichi-first-female-prime-minister\/\">Japan&rsquo;s parliament elects Sanae Takaichi as nation&rsquo;s first female prime minister<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3856914\/european-leaders-frustrated-trump-putin-undermine-zelensky-progress\/\">European leaders back to drawing board after Trump-Putin call undermines Zelensky&#8217;s progress<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3857130\/colombia-recalls-ambassador-trump-threatens-tariffs-strikes-drug-trafficking\/\">Colombia recalls US ambassador after Trump threatens tariffs and strikes over drug trafficking<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-paywall\">\n<p>Minutes later, the vehicle passed through the gates of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/nicolas-sarkozy-prison-france-sante-president-paris-a4016cf6b409fd12c7986118709ddfba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the notorious La Sant&eacute; prison<\/a>, where Sarkozy will now serve his sentence in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy was convicted last month for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.<\/p>\n<p>He contests both the conviction and a judge&rsquo;s unusual decision to incarcerate him pending appeal. His lawyers said Tuesday that they filed an immediate request for his release.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-a-show-of-defiance\">A show of defiance<\/h2>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s an ominous day for him, for France and for our institutions, because this incarceration is a disgrace,&rdquo; Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois told reporters soon after his incarceration.<\/p>\n<p>In a show of defiance and while on his way to the prison, Sarkozy released a statement on social media declaring that &ldquo;an innocent man&rdquo; was being locked up.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I will continue to denounce this judicial scandal,&rdquo; he wrote. &ldquo;The truth will prevail.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy told <em>Le Figaro<\/em> newspaper that he would bring three books in prison, the maximum allowed, including Alexandre Dumas&rsquo;s <em>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/em>, in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge. He also picked a biography of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not afraid of prison. I&rsquo;ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Sant&eacute;,&rdquo; he told <em>La Tribune Dimanche<\/em> newspaper last week. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll fight till the end.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy has repeatedly said he is the victim of &ldquo;a plot&rdquo; staged by some people linked to the Libyan government and denounced the Sept. 25 verdict as a &ldquo;scandal.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-solitary-confinement\">Solitary confinement<\/h2>\n<p>Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyers said he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. They said he packed a bag with a few sweaters because the prison is cold and earplugs because it&rsquo;s noisy.<\/p>\n<p>Christophe Ingrain, another of Sarkozy&rsquo;s lawyers, denounced &ldquo;a serious injustice.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s a very difficult time, but the president has stood strong,&rdquo; Ingrain said. &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t complain, hasn&rsquo;t asked for anything, no special treatment.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Solitary confinement implies that Sarkozy will never see other inmates and will spend most of his time alone in his cell, Ingrain said.<\/p>\n<p>He will be allowed to go outdoors one hour per day alone in the prison yard and to get three visits per week from his family, Ingrain said, adding that he is planning to write a book about his prison experience.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-an-outpouring-of-support-for-the-ex-president\">An outpouring of support for the ex-president<\/h2>\n<p>Sarkozy&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/france-sarkozy-legion-of-honor-37a123de3d116c2aea15ce299aceb575\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">journey from the presidential &Eacute;lys&eacute;e Palace<\/a>&nbsp;to La Sant&eacute; prison has captivated France.<\/p>\n<p>After leaving their home, Sarkozy and his wife walked slowly to join family members, including his children and grandchildren, outside his home.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very proud to share his name, and very proud of how he&rsquo;s reacting,&rdquo; said his brother, Guillaume Sarkozy. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m truly convinced that he is innocent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of supporters applauded and chanted &ldquo;Nicolas, Nicolas&rdquo; and sang the French anthem. Two French flags were hung on a nearby fence, with the words &ldquo;Courage Nicolas, return soon&rdquo; and &ldquo;true France with Nicolas.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Parisian resident Virginie Rochon, 44, came in support of Sarkozy, calling it &ldquo;scandalous&rdquo; to see &rdquo;a former president being taken away while still presumed innocent.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Another supporter, V&eacute;ronique Maurey, 50, said that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s just not possible. And on top of that, calling it a &lsquo;criminal conspiracy&rsquo; kind of makes all of us feel like criminals too because we voted for him. It&rsquo;s not right to say that.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-meeting-with-macron\">Meeting with Macron<\/h2>\n<p>Embattled centrist President&nbsp;Emmanuel Macron&nbsp;hosted the conservative Sarkozy at the presidential palace last week, explaining it was &ldquo;normal on a human level&rdquo; to receive one of his predecessors in this context.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Macron said he would not comment on a justice decision. &ldquo;Nevertheless, it&rsquo;s normal that the image of a president being imprisoned &hellip; may prompt comments,&rdquo; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We must distinguish emotion, including the legitimate emotion of relatives and part of the country &hellip; and the proper functioning of justice,&rdquo; Macron added.<\/p>\n<p>Sarkozy has been retired from active politics for years but remains very influential, especially in conservative circles.<\/p>\n<p>France&rsquo;s top magistrate R&eacute;my Heitz, prosecutor-general at the Court of Cassation, warned Tuesday about a risk of &ldquo;hindering [justice] serenity&rdquo; and of &ldquo;undermining the independence of judges,&rdquo; including when the justice minister, a former conservative who joined Macron&rsquo;s party, plans to visit Sarkozy in prison.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The goal for everyone must be serenity, to allow justice to truly rule independently &hellip; free from any pressure,&rdquo; Heitz said.<\/p>\n<p>The Paris court ruled last month that Sarkozy would start to serve prison time without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to &ldquo;the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/world\/3856214\/thieves-jewels-heist-louvre-napoleon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">THIEVES STEAL JEWELS OF &lsquo;INESTIMABLE VALUE&rsquo; IN FOUR-MINUTE HEIST AT LOUVRE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The court said Sarkozy, as a presidential candidate and interior minister, used his position &ldquo;to prepare corruption at the highest level&rdquo; from 2005 to 2007, to finance his presidential campaign with funds from Libya &mdash; then led by longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.<\/p>\n<p>Under the ruling, Sarkozy was able to file a request for release to the appeals court only once behind bars. Judges have up to two months to process it.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Associated Press journalists Angela Charlton, Oleg Cetinic and Nicolas Garriga in Paris contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"tdb-block-inner td-fix-index\"><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former French President Sarkozy starts 5-year prison term<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2634,"featured_media":2501347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25294284176473.jpg?w=696","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[65608,34350,46189,33118,32433],"class_list":["post-2501346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-criminal-conspiracy","tag-former-president","tag-french-politics","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-prison-sentence"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25294284176473.jpg?w=696","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2501346"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2501350,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2501346\/revisions\/2501350"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2501347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2501346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2501346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2501346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}