Published: 4:54pm, 21 Oct 2025Updated: 4:59pm, 21 Oct 2025
France’s ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy became the first former head of an EU state to be jailed Tuesday, proclaiming his innocence as he entered a Paris prison.
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France’s right-wing leader from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty last month of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.
The 70-year-old – who has appealed the verdict – left his home, and after a short drive flanked by police on motorbikes, entered the La Sante prison in the French capital.
“Welcome Sarkozy!”, “Sarkozy’s here,” convicts shouted from their cells.
In a defiant message posted on social media as he was being transferred, Sarkozy denied any wrongdoing.
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“It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man,” he said on X.