Oct. 21 (UPI) -- Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy reported to a high-security Paris prison Tuesday to begin a five-year sentence for a conspiracy conviction stemming from campaign finance funding from the late Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, who is appealing his conviction, is the first president of France to go to prison in the 233 years since the founding of the First French Republic in 1792.
The 70-year-old was greeted by more than 100 well-wishers and supporters as he emerged from his villa in Paris' upscale 16th arrondissement to make the short journey to the La Sante prison in the Montparnasse district south of the River Seine. Security was tight at the prison entrance.
Sarkozy, who occupied the Elysee Palace from 2007 to 2012, will be held in a small cell in solitary confinement for his own safety in the 19th-century penal facility where he will serve his sentence alongside drug kingpins and terrorists.
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