![\"Nicolas](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skynews-nicolas-sarkozy-prison_7057043.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNicolas Sarkozy declared his innocence and held hands with his wife before entering prison to begin his five-year sentence.<\/p>\n
The 70-year-old was pictured with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy on Tuesday morning ahead of travelling to Paris’ La Sante prison.<\/p>\n
He was found guilty last month of criminal conspiracy over the alleged illegal financing of his 2007 presidential election campaign.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Image:
\n Nicolas Sarkozy leaves his house with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Pic: Reuters<\/p>\n
Supporters chanted “Nicolas, Nicolas” as he left his home this morning and stepped into the car that would take him to jail.<\/p>\n
It caps a stunning downfall of the man who led France between 2007 and 2012.<\/p>\n
Sarkozy’s sons and daughter, Jean, Pierre, Louis and Giulia, and his grandchildren showed up at the gathering.<\/p>\n
As he prepared to begin his prison term, he posted a message on social media repeating his claims that he is an “innocent man” and said he feels a “deep sorrow for France”.<\/p>\n
He will be the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Petain after the Second World War.<\/p>\n
In his statement, Sarkozy said: “As I prepare to cross the walls of La Sante prison, my thoughts go out to the French people of all walks of life and opinions,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I want to tell them with my unwavering strength that it is not a former President of the Republic who is being locked up this morning, it is an innocent person.”<\/p>\n
He added: “I feel deep sorrow for France, which finds itself humiliated by the expression of a vengeance that has taken hatred to an unprecedented level. I have no doubt. The truth will triumph. But the price to pay will have been crushing.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Sarkozy declared his innocence and held hands with his wife before entering prison to begin his five-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-215003","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}