PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is about to be taught Monday when and the place he’ll serve time in jail for legal conspiracy for a scheme to make use of funds from Libya to finance his successful 2007 marketing campaign.
The primary ex-president in fashionable French historical past to be imprisoned, Sarkozy maintains his innocence and has protested the choice to place him behind bars pending his attraction.
Sarkozy, 70, is to seem Monday on the Nationwide Monetary Prosecutor’s workplace, which is able to set a date and site for his incarceration.
Whereas lengthy retired from energetic politics, Sarkozy stays an influential determine in conservative circles. He served as president from 2007 to 2012 and was beforehand convicted in one other corruption case however hasn’t needed to serve time.
For security causes, Sarkozy is predicted to be incarcerated beneath circumstances reserved for high-profile inmates, probably in a particular “VIP space” of La Santé jail, which is the one jail in Paris the place a few of France’s most infamous criminals have been imprisoned.
As soon as behind bars, Sarkozy will have the ability to file a launch request to the appeals courtroom. Judges will then have as much as two months to course of the request.
Sarkozy was handed a five-year sentence on Sept. 25 in a sprawling authorized case after a decade of investigation. The Paris courtroom stated the jail sentence was efficient instantly as an alternative of suspending it pending attraction, citing “the seriousness of the disruption to public order brought on by the offense.”
Sarkozy was given 18 days after the ruling to “manage his skilled life” earlier than Monday’s imprisonment determination.
The French justice ministry stated in 2024 that 90% of adults convicted and sentenced to not less than two years in jail are instantly incarcerated.
The courtroom stated Sarkozy, as a presidential candidate and inside minister, used his place “to arrange corruption on the highest degree” from 2005 to 2007 to finance his presidential marketing campaign with funds from Libya, then led by longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
The courtroom cleared Sarkozy of three different prices and stated there is no such thing as a proof the cash transferred from Libya to France ended up being utilized in Sarkozy’s 2007 marketing campaign or for his “direct private enrichment.”
Sarkozy constantly has stated he’s harmless and the sufferer of a plot by folks linked to the Libyan authorities. He recommended the allegations had been retaliation for his name in 2011 for Gadhafi’s removing. Gadhafi was toppled and killed amid Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that yr.
An attraction trial will happen at a later date, probably within the spring.
