Sarkozy’s prison term raises concern as death threat issued

Once the leader of a major historic European power, today a convict behind closed bars. This is the fate of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy after 13 years since leaving office in 2012.

Sarkozy began serving a five-year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiring to collect funds from Libya to finance his 2007 election campaign. As a result, the former president was transferred to the isolation unit within the La Santé prison, where he will remain in a solitary cell to ensure his security and the confidentiality of his detention.

Following his arrival to prison to serve his term, Sarkozy was met with a concerning “welcome.” Firstly, he was “greeted” with various insults by his inmates, which were captured and posted on social media. One of the circulated videos included an inmate shouting “We know everything. We are going to avenge Gaddafi… Give back the billions of dollars.” Secondly, and the most alarming, Sarkozy has received a death threat from an inmate. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office claimed that on October 22, 2025, it “was informed by the director of La Santé prison of a video circulating on social media, clearly filmed by an inmate, in which he made threats upon Nicolas Sarkozy’s arrival at the facility.” Despite the French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez claimed that Sarkozy was assigned two armed police officers during his prison term (a measure that has sparked controversy in and of itself), the aforementioned threat has raised concerns for the former president’s safety and security. Consequently, the prosecutor’s office reported that 3 inmates were questioned as part of the investigation, and 2 mobile phones were seized during a search of the prison.