to finance his winning 2007 campaign with funds from Libya. Sarkozy, 70, says he’s innocent. He denounced the verdict as “a scandal” and filed an appeal. He is the first former president of modern France sentenced to actual time behind bars. Sarkozy, who was involved in several other legal cases, was France’s president from 2007 to 2012. He has been retired from active politics for years but remains very influential, especially in conservative circles.

In a surprise decision, the Paris court said the prison sentence, which would otherwise have been suspended on appeal, is effective immediately. Sarkozy must be incarcerated without delay, the court explained, because “of the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense,” Still, Sarkozy was given 18 days since the ruling to “organize his professional life” before his summoning by the National Financial Prosecutor’s office to set a date for incarceration. Sarkozy’s supporters criticised the ruling because Sarkozy, since he appealed, is presumed to be innocent according to French law. The debate has been recently revived after far-right leader Marine Le Pen was sentenced in March to a five-year ban on running for public office for embezzling EU funds, also taking effect immediately despite her appeal. Sarkozy’s case does not appear as an exception in France’s judicial system. The justice ministry said in 2024, ninety per cent of adults convicted and sentenced to at least two years in prison were immediately incarcerated. (Jamaica Gleaner)