Paris (AP) – Nicolas Sarkozy’s imprisonment will be set on Monday after the former French president was sentenced to five years in prison for a criminal conspiracy under his winning 2007 Campaign funding from Libya funds.
The 70 -year -old Sarkozy says he is innocent. He condemned the verdict as a “scandal” and appealed. He is the first former president of Modern France convicted of real time behind bars.
Sarkozy, who participated in several other legal cases, was the French President from 2007 to 2012. He withdrew from active politics for years, but remains very influential, especially in conservative layers.
Why sarkozy goes to prison
A surprised decision, the Paris court said the prison sentence, which would otherwise have been suspended on appeal, came into force immediately.
The court explained that Sarkozy should be imprisoned immediately because “the seriousness of the public order caused by the crime”.
However, Sarkozy was granted 18 days of the “organization of his professional life” before he called for the date of imprisonment in the National Financial Prosecutor’s office.
Sarkozy’s supporters are believed to have criticized the ruling because Sarkozy is innocent under French law.
Recently, discussions were revived after March. Was convicted through the extreme right -wing leader Marine Le Pen, a five -year ban on the civil service for the Civil Service for the purification of EU funds, as well as its immediate, regardless of its appeal.
The Sarkozy Case does not appear as an exception to the French judicial system. The Ministry of Justice said that 90% of adults sentenced to at least two years in prison were immediately imprisoned.
What sarkozy has been convicted
The court stated that as a presidential candidate and the Minister of the Interior, the court, 2005-2007. Used his position to “prepare corruption at the highest level” to finance his presidential campaign with Libya, then led by longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.
The three -judge panel stated that Claude Guéant and Brice Hortefeux, the closest Sarkozy peers in 2005, Held secret meetings with Abdullah al-Senousi, Gadhafi’s brother and intelligence manager, despite being convicted of terrorism, mainly against French and European citizens. ”.
Al-Senousi is considered to be the main attack on the Pan Am Jumo Jet in Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, and next year’s French aircraft through Niger-it causes hundreds of deaths. 1999 He was convicted and convicted of a life -sentenced punishment for the attack on the French Uta flight 772.
The court also argued that there is evidence that Sarkozy’s meetings between Guéanth, the then head of his headquarters, and the mediator who could provide secret financial instruments.
Why does he say it’s a storyline
Sarkozy consistently stated that he was innocent, and some people related to the Libyan government are the victim of the “storyline”, including what he described as the Gadhafi clan.
He suggested that allegations of funding for the campaign were revenge on him as a French President, an invitation to removal of Gadhafi.
Sarkozy was one of the first Western leaders seeking military intervention in Libya in 2011, when the protests of the Arab Spring democracy removed the Arab world. In the same year, Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in the uprising, terminating his four decades of North Africa.
In addition, Sarkozy requires the court that it has been confirmed by the other three accusations, including passive corruption, illegal funding and hiding of the campaign.
The court stated that there was no evidence that the money transferred from Libya to France was used by Sarkozy in 2007. In the campaign and acknowledged that they were not used for his “direct personal enrichment service”.
What will happen next
Sarkozy is expected to be imprisoned in these conditions for high -level prisoners, possibly a special area called LA Santé Prison VIP, the only prison in Paris. Some of the most famous French criminals were imprisoned here.
Once behind bars, Sarkozy will be able to submit a permit to the Court of Appeal. The judges will then have to submit up to two months to process the application.
The appellate trial will take place later, perhaps next spring.
Pierre Botton, a French business owner, who is a Sarkozy friend, spent almost four years in prison in two separate cases, including from 2020 to 2022. La Santé.
He described the imprisonment as “violent” shock to anyone “, referring to the French information news broadcaster after the ruling.
He said Sarkozy would probably spend a week in the arrival area to be “rated”, then transferred to the so -called “territory” of the vulnerable personalities for security reasons.
Sarkozy is likely to be one in the prison chamber with a shower, toilet, a small heating element, a refrigerator and a TV, a botton described. He will have access to a special phone he will need to pay to use, Botton said.