Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has already arrived at de la Santé prison, where he will serve a five-year prison sentence for criminal association, in a case of financing his campaign in the 2007 presidential campaign, with money from the government of then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy, 70, left a message on social media in which he said that, as he prepared to pass the walls of the prison, his thoughts were with the “French people of all social classes and opinions”.
“I want to tell you, with my unshakable strength, that it is not a former President of the Republic who will be arrested this morning, it is an innocent person”, he wrote.
The former head of state was found guilty of having allowed two advisers from the Ministry of the Interior (equivalent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs) to begin negotiations in Tripoli with the aim of secretly financing the 2007 presidential campaign. “This is a case of illegal financing without any financing”, he highlighted in this message. “This morning, I feel profound sadness for France, which finds itself humiliated by the expression of revenge that has raised hatred to an unprecedented level,” he continued.
Sarkozy guaranteed that he will continue to denounce “this judicial scandal” and the “path of suffering” he has been on for more than ten years. “I feel profound sadness for France, which finds itself humiliated by the expression of revenge that has raised hatred to an unprecedented level”, he said, finishing: “I have no doubts. The truth will triumph. But the price to be paid will have been crushing…”