Spanish
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was imprisoned this Tuesday in La Santé prison in Paris, after being sentenced to five years in prison for illicit association in the context of the trial for the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential campaign with funds from the government of then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Upon leaving his home, the 70-year-old former president published a message on his X account in which he denounced "a judicial scandal" and insisted that "an innocent person" is being imprisoned.
"It is not a former president of the Republic who is being locked up this morning, it is an innocent man," he wrote. He added that he feels a "deep sorrow for France, which is humiliated by the expression of a vengeance that has brought hatred to an unprecedented level." "I have no doubt. The truth will triumph. But the price to pay will have been devastating," he concluded his message.
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Sarkozy went to the prison early in the morning accompanied by his wife, Carla Bruni. He is the first former French president to be imprisoned and will remain in solitary confinement in a 9-square-meter cell, without contact with other inmates. A few minutes after being incarcerated, his lawyers filed a request for release, local media report. "There is no risk of the facts being repeated, there is no risk of evidence being destroyed - there is no evidence - and there is no risk of pressure on witnesses," said lawyer Christophe Ingrain. Sarkozy was convicted in September. A Paris court determined that the politician participated between 2005 and 2007 in a scheme that sought to finance his run for the presidency with Libyan resources in exchange for diplomatic favors. However, he was acquitted of three other charges: passive corruption, illicit financing of his campaign, and concealment of embezzlement of public funds.
