Nicolas Sarkozy will be placed in a VIP cell at “La Sante” prison, which, according to a report by MEGA’s “Live News” program, will have a television and refrigerator for a fee, and will be a single-occupancy room. Based on this information, conditions at this particular prison are generally characterized as “very good”. Sarkozy received a five-year prison sentence without suspension but with deferral, as he was not sent directly to prison, with the Prosecutor’s Office set to inform him on October 13 of the date he must report there.
Read more: Guilty of participation in criminal organization in the Gaddafi case
After October 13, however, the former President of France will have the right to a maximum four-month period outside prison. Sarkozy was convicted of participation in a criminal organization that received money from Muammar Gaddafi’s government in Libya, but not for the charge of using that money during his election campaign from 2005 to 2007.
Nicolas Sarkozy: Release application and electronic bracelet
Following Nicolas Sarkozy’s conviction, and beyond his chief lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, many friendly figures characterized his imprisonment decision as unjust. However, the scenario of Emmanuel Macron, the current President of France, granting him a pardon is rejected by his lawyer, as Sarkozy’s official position is to clear his own name from the stigma left by this case, whose thread began unraveling in 2013, and to prove his innocence.
Moreover, his official statement moved along these lines: “I will sleep in prison with my head held high. Today’s decision is very serious for the Rule of Law in France. More than ten years of investigation, millions of euros spent to find Libyan money that the criminal court said it could not locate in my election campaign. I have no desire for revenge, but I will fight until my last breath to prove that I am innocent”.
However, what he can do is, once he finds himself in prison, file an application for release. If accepted, he will be allowed to move around wearing an electronic bracelet.
