When it is 9:30 am in Paris (one hour less in Lisbon) on Tuesday, October 21st, Nicolas Sarkozy will be admitted to La Santé prison. The former French president, found guilty of criminal association and sentenced to five years in prison on September 25th, did not request any exceptional measure and will, therefore, have to follow the same protocol as any other detainee.
Found guilty in a case of financing his campaign in the 2007 presidential campaign, with money from the government of then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Upon arrival at the prison, Sarkozy will receive a welcome guide and internal regulations. At the age of 70, Sarkozy will then go through the registration service, where his identity will be noted, and he will then be reminded why he is in prison. Your fingerprints will then be taken and your photograph will be taken. You will then be assigned a prisoner number and your internal prison identity card will be created.
The next stepaccording to BFMTV is the passage through the locker room, where the former president will leave documents and objects prohibited in prison. Money and jewelry will have to be placed in the safes, with the exception of rings, watches and any religious objects.
The protocol then provides for a complete body search, before the detainee receives the kit upon arrival, with hygiene products, clean underwear, but also sheets, a blanket, crockery for meals, as well as paper and pencils. The sixth president of the V. Republic will then be placed in the arrivals wing, intended for new detainees. Despite not having asked for it, he will be kept in an individual cell for security reasons. In this 11m2 space with a window, Sarkozy will also have a television, but not a cell phone. With it, he confessed to the Le Figaroyou will take two books: The Count of Monte Cristo and a biography of Jesus.
When it comes to free time, the former president has already promised to use it to write a book about his experience in prison.
HAS Sunday Tribune, Sarkozy assured “I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll keep my head up.” Yesterday the news emerged that the former president was received on Friday by the current head of state, Emmanuel Macron. “It is normal that, on a human level, I welcome one of my predecessors, in this context,” said Macron
This is an unprecedented sentence for a former head of the French state and a severe blow for a man who has always claimed his innocence and who denounces this and other legal proceedings he faced as being politically motivated.
Since losing re-election in 2012, Sarkozy has been the target of several criminal investigations. The former president appealed a February 2024 decision that found him guilty of excessive spending on his re-election campaign and hiring a public relations company to cover up the case. He was sentenced to one year, of which six months were suspended.
In 2021, he was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 and became the first former French president to receive a custodial sentence. In December, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled that he could serve his sentence at home, wearing an electronic bracelet, instead of going to prison.