Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy learned on Monday, October 13, when and where he will serve out his prison term after a court sentenced him last month to five years behind bars for criminal conspiracy. But neither the financial prosecutors who informed him nor his lawyer responded to a request from Agence France-Presse for comment on when or where he was to be incarcerated.
Sarkozy, France's leader from 2007 to 2012, was convicted in late September over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to fund his 2007 presidential run. He has denied the charges and appealed that conviction, but the judges ruled that his sentence will be implemented even as his appeal plays out.
The 70-year-old will be the first French postwar leader and the first former head of a European Union country to serve jail time. Extra security measures are expected, with Sarkozy possibly placed in a unit for vulnerable prisoners or held in solitary confinement.
The former president immediately appealed his September conviction, with a new trial expected in the coming months. The Paris appeals court has up to 18 months to organize it. Once jailed, his lawyers can petition the appeals court for his release, but he will remain in custody unless it decides otherwise.
During the trial, prosecutors argued Sarkozy and his aides, acting with his authority and in his name, struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid two years later. Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after the West blamed Tripoli for bombing a plane in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers. Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said the offences were of "exceptional gravity."
The court's ruling found he was guilty of criminal conspiracy. But it did not follow the conclusion of prosecutors that Sarkozy was the beneficiary of the illegal campaign financing. He was acquitted on separate charges of embezzlement of Libyan public funds, passive corruption and illicit financing of an electoral campaign.
Sarkozy has faced a litany of legal problems since his presidency ended. The country's top court last year upheld his conviction and one-year jail sentence for graft over attempting in 2014 to secure favours from a judge. He served three months of that time with an electronic tag earlier this year, before being granted conditional release.
Separately, he has received a one-year jail term – six months with another six months suspended – for illegal financing of his 2012 campaign. He has filed a final appeal with France's top court, which is to issue its ruling late next month.
He has also faced repercussions beyond the courtroom, including losing his Legion of Honor – France's highest distinction – following the graft conviction.
Legal woes aside, the man who styled himself as the "hyper-president" while in office still enjoys considerable influence and popularity on the right of French politics, and has been known to regularly meet with President Emmanuel Macron.