PARIS, October 21. /TASS/. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been taken to Paris’s La Sante prison to begin serving his five-year sentence over the Libyan funding of his 2007 election campaign, is determined to prove his innocence, Christophe Ingrain, one of his lawyers, said.
"The only way to have him released is to file a request for discharge which will be considered for a month. This is an utter injustice. It is a hard trial [for Sarkozy] but he is facing it with determination <…> to prove his innocence," he told the LCI television channel.
According to the lawyer, a motion has already been filed with the Paris Court of Appeal. "It is hard to be in custody when you are a victim of injustice," he added.
On Tuesday, Sarkozy, who served as French president in 2007-2012, was placed in Paris’ La Sante prison to serve a five-year sentence in a case involving Libyan funding of his 2007 election campaign. On September 25, he was found guilty of complicity in a criminal conspiracy in the Libyan funding case but was acquitted of charges of concealing the embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption. However, the court did not prove that the 2007 election campaign was illegally financed.
In May 2012, eight days before the second round of the presidential election, the Mediapart news agency reported that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (1969-2011) had allocated 50 million euros to Sarkozy for election expenses. As proof, it published on its website a decree signed by Libyan General People’s Committee for Foreign Relations and International Cooperation Secretary Musa Kusa, granting the funds. A Paris court ruled that the published document was a forgery.