Former French leader Sarkozy begins 5-year prison sentence for campaign finance conspiracy

PARIS, Oct 21, (AP): Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived at a prison in Paris to begin serving a 5-year sentence for a criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. He is the first ex-leader of modern France to be imprisoned.

 Sarkozy’s lawyer Christophe Ingrain said on BFM TV that incarceration "strengthens his determination, it strengthens his rage to prove that he is innocent.” Ingrain said Sarkozy is planning to write a book about his prison experience. Jean-Michel Darrois, another of Sarkozy's lawyers, said on Tuesday that the former president got himself "mentally prepared” to be held in solitary confinement, where he would be kept away from all other prisoners for security reasons. "

First, he packed a bag with a few sweaters because it’s cold in prison, and earplugs because it’s very noisy,” Darrois said on France Info news broadcaster. "Isolation like what he’s going to go through is painful, but he got himself prepared.” "I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé,” Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper. "I’ll fight till the end.”