By Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters) -Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived at La Sante prison in Paris on Tuesday to start a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, in a stunning downfall for a man who led the country between 2007 and 2012.
The former conservative president left his home earlier, walking hand in hand with his wife Carla Bruni and cheered on by a crowd of supporters chanting “Nicolas, Nicolas” and singing France’s La Marseillaise national anthem.
Sarkozy, who was convicted and sentenced last month, will become the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after World War Two.
Shortly after he stepped into a car to head to La Sante, Sarkozy published a long message on X in which he claimed to be a victim of revenge and hatred.
“I want to tell (French people), with the unshakable strength that is mine, that it is not a former president of the Republic who is being imprisoned this morning — it is an innocent man,” he said.
Sarkozy’s conviction capped years of legal battles over allegations that his 2007 campaign took millions in cash from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings.
While Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring with close aides to orchestrate the scheme, he was acquitted of personally receiving or using the funds.
He has consistently denied wrongdoing and has called the case politically motivated.
“I am very proud of him, proud that he is going to prison with his head held high, and absolutely convinced of his innocence,” his brother, Guillaume Sarkozy, told BFM TV. He was among relatives and supporters who cheered the former president on his way to jail.
(Reporting by Manuel Ausloos Clotaire Achi, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Jean-Stephane Brosse; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Michel Rose;Editing by Alison Williams, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Frances Kerry)
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