PARIS: Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy will serve jail time at a Paris prison from October 21, informed sources told AFP Monday, after a court last month sentenced him to five years behind bars for criminal conspiracy.
The 70-year-old, who will be the first French postwar leader and the first former head of a European Union country to go to jail, will serve time at the La Sante prison in Paris, they said.
Sarkozy, France’s leader from 2007 to 2012, was convicted in late September over a scheme for late Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi to fund his 2007 presidential run.
Extra security measures are expected to ensure his safety in prison, with Sarkozy possibly placed in a unit for vulnerable prisoners or held in solitary confinement.
Earlier Monday, he arrived at the financial prosecutor’s office in Paris to learn the details of his upcoming incarceration.
