PARIS, FRANCE:--- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is currently serving a five-year prison sentence at La Santé prison in Paris after being convicted of criminal conspiracy related to accepting illicit campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Upon his arrival, Sarkozy faced immediate threats from fellow inmates, including a video where one shouted, “We’re going to avenge Gaddafi, we know everything, Sarko… we know everything. Give back the billions of dollars.” In response, two police officers from the VIP Protection Service were assigned to a neighboring cell to provide 24-hour protection.
Sarkozy, at 70 years old, spent a "frightening" first night in solitary confinement at the high-security facility. His conviction stems from allegations that he misused his position to engage in high-level corruption between 2005 and 2007, including accepting laundered money from Gaddafi's regime. Despite his incarceration, Sarkozy maintains his innocence, describing the conviction as a "judicial scandal" and vowing to continue fighting the case while in prison.
His wife, Carla Bruni, has publicly supported him, posting "Love is the answer" and criticizing detractors. Sarkozy's imprisonment has sparked political reverberations across France, with President Emmanuel Macron acknowledging the emotional impact while upholding the independence of the judiciary.