PARIS — PARIS (AP) — Former French president Nicholas Sarkozy arrived at a Paris prison on Tuesday to begin serving a five-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with money from Libya.
He is the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned.
Sarkozy left the house hand in hand with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy before getting into a police car and traveling to prison.
On the way to prison, Sarkozy said in a statement on social media that “an innocent man” was being locked up.
Sarkozy’s lawyers said a request for release had been made immediately.
He was convicted last month of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with money from Libya.
Sarkozy contests both convictions and a judge’s unusual decision to jail him pending an appeal. Are travel from the Presidential Elysée Palace to the infamous La Santé prison in Paris has fascinated France.
Minutes before entering the prison, Sarkozy and his wife walked slowly to his children and grandchildren outside his home. He waved to a crowd of supporters gathered in the upscale Paris neighborhood where he lives, then got into his car.
Hundreds of supporters applauded and chanted “Nicolas, Nicolas” and sang the French national anthem. Two French flags were hung on a nearby fence, with the inscriptions: “Courage Nicolas, return quickly” and “true France with Nicolas.”
Sarkozy’s sons and daughter – Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia – and his grandchildren appeared at the meeting.
Parisian Michelle Perié, 67, said she supported “because there is anger and injustice.”
“He is not like all the other defendants, he is someone who keeps state secrets, he is someone who has always done his job with his head held high. We don’t understand it,” she said.
Controversial centrist president Emmanuel Macron Last week he hosted conservative Sarkozy at the presidential palace. “I have always been very clear in my public statements about the independence of the judiciary in my role, but on a human level it was normal to receive one of my predecessors in this context,” Macron said on Monday.
Sarkozy’s lawyers said the former president will be held in solitary confinement, where he will be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.
Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration “strengthens his determination, it strengthens his anger to prove that he is innocent.” Ingrain said Sarkozy plans to write a book about his prison experiences.
Jean-Michel Darrois, another lawyer for Sarkozy, said on Tuesday that the former president was “mentally preparing” for his captivity in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons.
“First he packed a bag with some sweaters because it is cold in the prison, and earplugs because it is very noisy,” Darrois said on the France Info news channel. “Isolation like what he is going through is painful, but he has prepared himself.”
“I am not afraid of prison. I will hold my head high, also in front of the doors of La Santé,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. “I will fight to the end.”
According to the newspaper, Sarkozy has his prison bag ready with clothes and the ten family photos he is allowed to take with him.
Sarkozy also told Le Figaro newspaper that he would take three books – the maximum allowed – including Alexandre Dumas’ “The Count of Monte Cristo,” in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge.
The Paris judge ruled that Sarkozy would serve a prison sentence without waiting for his appeal to be heard, due to “the seriousness of the disruption of public order caused by the crime.”
According to the ruling, 70-year-old Sarkozy cannot apply for release to the appeals court until he is behind bars. The judges then have a maximum of two months to process the request.
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AP journalists Angela Charlton, Oleg Cetinic.
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