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PARIS: Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to learn Monday when and where he will serve time in prison for criminal conspiracy for a scheme to use funds from Libya to finance his winning 2007 campaign.
The first ex-president in modern French history to be imprisoned, Sarkozy maintains his innocence and has protested the decision to put him behind bars pending his appeal.
Sarkozy, 70, is to appear Monday at the National Financial Prosecutor’s office, which will set a date and location for his incarceration.
While long retired from active politics, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in conservative circles. He served as president from 2007 to 2012 and was previously convicted in another corruption case but hasn’t had to serve time.
For safety reasons, Sarkozy is expected to be incarcerated under conditions reserved for high-profile inmates, possibly in a special “VIP area” of La Santé prison, which is the only prison in Paris where some of France’s most notorious criminals have been imprisoned.
Once behind bars, Sarkozy will be able to file a release request to the appeals court. Judges will then have up to two months to process the request.
Sarkozy was handed a five-year sentence on Sept. 25 in a sprawling legal case after a decade of investigation. The Paris court said the prison sentence was effective immediately instead of suspending it pending appeal, citing “the seriousness of the disruption to public order caused by the offense.”
Sarkozy was given 18 days after the ruling to “organize his professional life” before Monday’s imprisonment decision.
The French justice ministry said in 2024 that 90 percent of adults convicted and sentenced to at least two years in prison are immediately incarcerated.
The court said Sarkozy, as a presidential candidate and interior minister, used his position “to prepare corruption at the highest level” from 2005 to 2007 to finance his presidential campaign with funds from Libya, then led by longtime ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
The court cleared Sarkozy of three other charges and said there is no evidence the money transferred from Libya to France ended up being used in Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign or for his “direct personal enrichment.”
Sarkozy consistently has said he is innocent and the victim of a plot by people linked to the Libyan government. He suggested the allegations were retaliation for his call in 2011 for Qaddafi’s removal. Qaddafi was toppled and killed amid Arab Spring pro-democracy protests that year.
An appeal trial will take place at a later date, possibly in the spring.

BEIJING/HONG KONG: Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called for greater representation for women in politics and government at a global women’s summit in Beijing, a move he said would ensure that gender equality is “truly internalized” within society.
The two-day “Global leaders meeting on women,” held in conjunction with UN Women, seeks to further advance women’s development globally, gender equality and the well-rounded development of women, authorities said.
Leaders from Iceland, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Dominica and Mozambique are attending, state media reported.
Xi said that countries needed to “broaden channels for women to participate in political and decision-making, and promote women’s broad participation in national and social governance.”
Peace and stability are prerequisites for women’s all-round development, Xi said.
The summit comes as China has made great strides in educating women, who account for around 50 percent of students in higher education and around 43 percent of the total employed population.
However, the lack of senior female politicians appears to be at odds with a broad push by the Communist Party to increase female representation. An absence of women among China’s top leadership is concerning, the United Nations said in 2023, as it recommended China adopt statutory quotas and a gender parity system to quicken equal representation of women in government.
In 2022, China for the first time in 20 years did not have a woman among the 24 members of the country’s politburo and no women among the seven members of the standing committee of the politburo. Xi’s decade as the party’s general secretary has seen the number of women in politics and elite government roles decline and gender gaps in the workforce widen, academics and activists say. Xi said in 2023 that women have a critical role and must establish a “new trend of family,” as the nation grapples with an aging population and record decline in the birth rate.
Doing a good job in women’s work is not only related to women’s own development but also related to “family harmony, social harmony, national development and national progress,” he said.