British News Agency

The 70-year-old Sarkozy arrived under heavy security at 9:40 a.m. at the entrance of the notorious 19th-century prison in Paris’s Montparnasse district, south of the Seine River.

Since Nazi collaborator leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945, no former French leader has been imprisoned.

Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, has appealed his sentence and will be held in a roughly 9-square-meter isolation cell at La Santé Prison.

Continuing to claim his innocence in the controversial Libya money case, Sarkozy posted on X before being taken to prison: “I have no doubt. The truth will prevail. But at what cost?”

He wrote: “I tell the French people with unshakable strength — it is not a former president who was imprisoned this morning, but an innocent man. Do not pity me — my wife and children are by my side... but I feel deep sadness for a France humiliated by vengeance.”

Sarkozy said he does not seek any special treatment at La Santé Prison but was placed in isolation for his safety, as other inmates are drug traffickers or convicted terrorists.

Aside from Philippe Pétain, the only other French leader to be imprisoned was King Louis XVI, executed in January 1793.