Sarkozy jailed: has a former French president finally been held accountable?
Nicolas Sarkozy, the prominent political figure who held the highest office in the land as French president from 2007 to 2012, has been propelled into a truly unprecedented and historic situation. On October 21, 2025, Sarkozy became the very first former head of the modern Fifth Republic to be incarcerated, officially beginning a five-year prison sentence. This highly controversial and significant event unfolded with his mandatory arrival at La santé prison in Paris, marking the grim beginning of his term for criminal conspiracy linked to the illegal financing of his successful 2007 presidential campaign.
The core of the conviction hinges on a deeply scandalous and complex plot: the solicitation of illicit campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. Despite the undeniable gravity of the judicial verdict, Sarkozy remains staunchly defiant, consistently asserting his innocence. Just before being transported to the correctional facility, he took to the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to declare that the courts were unjustly locking up “an innocent man” and confidently proclaiming that “truth will prevail.”
The 70-year-old former president was transported to the notoriously overcrowded 19th-century prison in the capital’s Montparnasse district after departing his luxurious villa in the exclusive 16th district. He was accompanied by his wife, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and the pair was greeted by a crowd of over a hundred cheering and supportive well-wishers. Immediately following his admission, Sarkozy’s legal team filed an urgent appeal for his provisional release, vehemently arguing that his present imprisonment is unwarranted and unjustified, particularly given his age and former office.
However, pending any judicial change, Sarkozy remains confined to a small, isolated cell in the prison’s dedicated isolation wing. This segregation is a critical safety measure, necessitated by the high-profile nature of the former president and the dangerous profile of many other inmates. He is being housed under stringent conditions: allowed just one hour of solitary exercise daily in a segregated courtyard.
This act of putting a former French leader behind bars is a legal and political milestone that has not been witnessed in France since Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason following World War II in 1945. Sarkozy’s legal troubles are far from over, as he still faces other criminal battles, including a previous conviction for attempted bribery of a magistrate and the impending verdict in the separate Bygmalion affair, which also concerns illegal campaign financing. In a final symbolic act of defiance, the former president reportedly took two books into prison: a life of Jesus by Jean-Christophe Petitfils and Alexandre Dumas’s classic, The Count of Monte Cristo—a tale of wrongful conviction and eventual revenge. These choices suggest a determined and combative mindset as he begins his unprecedented time behind bars.
