Nicolas Sarkozy, convicted of five years in prison for the Libyan financing of his 2007 campaign, will be imprisoned on October 21 at La Santé prison in Paris. The former president was informed of this decision during a hearing on October 13 at the National Financial Prosecutor's Office. He remains presumed innocent pending his appeal.
On October 13, 2025, Nicolas Sarkozy, aged 70, went to the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for a hearing of about twenty-five minutes with its president, Jean-François Bohnert. Arriving at 1:45 p.m. and leaving at 2:25 p.m., the former head of state made no statement, nor did his lawyer Christophe Ingrain or the PNF, according to AFP.
This summons followed his conviction, handed down on September 25, 2025, by the Paris court, to five years in firm prison with a deferred deposit warrant and provisional execution, for allowing his collaborators to solicit Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for illegal financing of his victorious 2007 presidential campaign. The court justified this measure by the « exceptional gravity of the facts », committed by a political figure aspiring to the highest office in the Republic.
Unlike his co-defendants Alexandre Djouhri and Wahib Nacer, who were imprisoned immediately, Sarkozy benefited from a four-month delay to arrange his professional affairs. He will enter detention as a first-instance convict but presumed innocent pending his appeal trial, which could take place in the coming months.
Nicolas Sarkozy is the first French president, and according to an AFP review, the first European head of state, to enter a cell. For security reasons, he will be placed either in a quarter for vulnerable personalities (QPV), or in isolation at La Santé prison, one of the two detention centers in the Paris region with a QPV, along with Fleury-Mérogis.
His defense can immediately request provisional release before the court of appeal, which has a maximum of two months to rule. All seven defendants, including Sarkozy, as well as the PNF, have appealed the judgment. The court found that money flows left Libya but did not prove they reached the campaign coffers; under law, the mere preparation characterizes the offense of criminal association. If no new trial occurs within eighteen months, the defendants will be released, unless held for other reasons.