Nicolas Sarkozy enters prison to begin five-year sentence over criminal conspiracy

<p>Former president organised stage-managed departure from his Paris home before becaming first French postwar leader to be jailed</p><ul><li><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/oct/21/nicolas-sarkozy-france-jail-russia-ukraine-europe-news-live-updates">Europe live – latest updates</a></p></li></ul><p>The former French president <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/19/france-former-president-nicolas-sarkozy-prison">Nicolas Sarkozy</a> has entered a prison in Paris, after a court sentenced him to five years for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/nicolas-sarkozy-found-guilty-of-criminal-conspiracy-in-libya-trial">criminal conspiracy</a> over a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.</p><p>Sarkozy, the rightwing president of France between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to serve time in prison, and the first French postwar leader to be jailed.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/21/nicolas-sarkozy-enters-prison-paris-france">Continue reading...</a>