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Former French President Sarkozy leaves his residence and heads to La Santé prison in Paris for incarceration -UPDATED

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy leaves his house with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on the day of his incarceration

21 October 2025 11:37 (UTC +04:00)

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy left his home in Paris hand in hand with his wife Carla Bruni on to go to the capital's La Sante prison to start a five-year prison term, APA reports, citing France 24.

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09:15

Nicolas Sarkozy will become the first former French president in living memory to be imprisoned when he is expected to begin a five-year sentence Tuesday in Paris’ La Santé prison, APA reports, citing NBC NEWS.

Convicted of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya, Sarkozy maintains his innocence. Regardless, he will be admitted to serve his time in a prison that has held some of the most high-profile inmates since the 19th century. They include Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, wrongly convicted of treason because he was Jewish, and the Venezuelan militant known as Carlos the Jackal, who carried out several attacks on French soil.

Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper that he expects to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. Another possibility is that he is held in the prison’s section for “vulnerable″ inmates, colloquially known as the VIP section.

Former La Santé inmates described their experiences and what the former president might expect to face. The prison, which was inaugurated in 1867, has been fully renovated in recent years.