Nicolas Sarkozy enters prison to begin five-year sentence over campaign funds

"The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has entered a prison in Paris, after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy, the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed."

"Sarkozy, who has appealed against his conviction, had sought to avoid being photographed at the gates of La Sante prison in the south of Paris. Instead, he organised a highly stage-managed departure from his home in the west of Paris where he walked on foot with his wife, the singer Carla Bruni, to greet crowds gathered to in the street outside his home. First his children, led by Giulia, his 14-year-old daughter with Bruni, slowly walked from his home to greet well-wishers."

"The lead judge, Nathalie Gavarino, justified the five-year prison sentence by saying the facts of the case were of an exceptional gravity and likely to undermine citizens' trust. During the three-month trial, the public prosecutor had told the court that Sarkozy entered into a Faustian pact of corruption with one of the most unspeakable dictators of the last 30 years to gain election funding from Gaddafi."

Nicolas Sarkozy entered La Santé prison in Paris after a court sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy tied to seeking election campaign funds from Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime. He served as France's rightwing president from 2007 to 2012 and is the first former EU head and first French postwar leader to be jailed. Sarkozy has appealed and sought to avoid prison gate photographs, instead staging a walk from his home with his wife Carla Bruni while family greeted supporters. His social media declared innocence and called the imprisonment a judicial scandal. The lead judge cited exceptional gravity; the prosecutor described a Faustian pact.

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