France’s Sarkozy faces jail term over Libyan election funding scandal

Sarkozy

France’s ex-president, Nicolas Sarkozy, is to be jailed on Tuesday over a scheme to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run, becoming the first former head of an EU country to serve time behind bars.

Sarkozy, France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012, was convicted in late September of criminal conspiracy over a plan for late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi to fund his electoral campaign.

The former state leader, who has appealed the verdict and denounced an “injustice”, is to be incarcerated in the Parisian prison La Sante.

“If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison — but with my head held high,” he told the press after his September 25 verdict.

Sarkozy is to be the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state of France’s Vichy regime, who was jailed after World War II.

He is likely to be held in one of the cells of nine square metres (95 square feet) in the prison’s solitary confinement wing, prison staff have told AFP.

This would avoid Sarkozy having to interact with other prisoners or them taking pictures of him with one of the many mobile phones that are smuggled inside, they said, requesting anonymity because they are not allowed to talk to the press.

– ‘Exceptional gravity’ –

It is unclear how long Sarkozy will remain in jail.

Presiding judge Nathalie Gavarino said during Sarkozy’s sentencing that the offences were of “exceptional gravity”, and therefore ordered him to be incarcerated even if he filed an appeal.

But Sarkozy’s lawyers are expected to request his release as soon as he sets foot inside the jail, and the appeals trial has two months to examine it.