PARIS, November 10. /TASS/. Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, sentenced to five years in prison in a campaign funding case, said in a video address to the Appeals Court hearing his request for release that he finds prison life extremely exhausting and is determined to comply with all court requirements if freed.

"Never could I imagine that at 70, I would go to prison. This is a severe test, <...> which leaves a mark on the soul of every inmate, because it is exhausting. I am aware of the seriousness of the charges against me, but the three weeks I have spent at La Sante prison will not make me change my position," Le Figaro quoted him as saying.

The former president added that he had no intention to plead guilty to crimes he had not committed, and emphasized that he had taken no money from former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to fund his election campaign.

On September 25, Sarkozy, 70, who served as French president from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty of complicity in a criminal conspiracy in the Libyan funding case but acquitted of concealing the embezzlement of public funds and passive corruption. However, the court did not establish that the 2007 election campaign was illegally financed. Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison and placed in solitary confinement at Paris’ La Sante prison.

Two special two-member police teams were deployed to the facility to guard Sarkozy. According to media reports, several inmates threatened him on his first night in prison. Le Point magazine reported that Sarkozy refused prison food for fear it might be poisoned or spoiled, eating only yogurt.