PARIS, Oct 20 — Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will be put behind bars on Tuesday, starting a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, in a stunning downfall for a leader once known for his swagger and taste for the global spotlight.
Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, will become the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain after World War II.
"I am not afraid of prison. I will keep my head held high, including at the prison gates," Sarkozy told the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper ahead of his incarceration.
Sebastien Cauwel, who heads up the high-profile La Santé Prison in Paris where Sarkozy will be jailed, said the former President would be held in isolation.
"He will be able to access the exercise yard on his own twice a day, he will have access to an activities room while on his own, and he will be alone when inside his prison cell," he told RTL Radio.
Access to TV, landline, and private shower
The conviction caps years of legal battles over allegations that his 2007 campaign took millions in cash from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings.
While Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring with close aides to orchestrate the scheme, he was acquitted of personally receiving or using the funds.
He has consistently denied wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated, saying judges were seeking to humiliate him. Sarkozy has appealed, but the nature of his sentence means he must go to jail as his appeal process plays out.
The former president has already been convicted in a separate corruption case, in which he was found guilty of trying to obtain confidential information from a judge in return for career favours, serving that sentence by wearing an electronic tag around the ankle.
His isolation unit at La Santé prison in Paris, which in the past has housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, features inmates who are housed in single cells and kept apart during outdoor activities for security reasons.
Conditions are similar to the rest of the prison: cells measure nine to 12 square metres (100 to 130 square feet) and, following renovations, now include private showers.
Sarkozy will have access to a television — for a monthly fee of €14 (RM68.90) — and a landline telephone.
'The Count of Monte Cristo' on reading list
Sarkozy's lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois told Franceinfo radio that his client is getting ready for prison by bringing along pullovers and earplugs.
"He has put together a few bags in which he has put some pullovers, as prisons can be cold, and some earplugs, as there could also be a lot of noise," he.
Sarkozy had also told Le Figaro he would take three books for his first week behind bars, including Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo — the story of a man unjustly imprisoned who plots his revenge against those who betrayed him.
The decision to jail a former president has sparked outrage among Sarkozy's political allies and the far right.
However, the ruling reflects a shift in France's approach to white-collar crime, following reforms introduced under a previous Socialist government. In the 1990s and 2000s, many convicted politicians avoided prison altogether.
Legal experts and politicians told Reuters that to counter perceptions of impunity, French judges are increasingly issuing "provisional execution" orders, requiring sentences to begin immediately, even as appeals are pending.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office under the same 'provisional execution' provision, pending an appeal early next year.
According to an October 1 Elabe poll for BFM TV, 58 per cent of French respondents believe the verdict was impartial, and 61 per cent support the decision to send Sarkozy to jail without waiting for the appeal.
On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron, who had warm relations with Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni, said he had met Sarkozy ahead of his incarceration. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, who is close to Sarkozy, told France Inter radio that he would go and visit the former president.
