Nicolas Sarkozy will be imprisoned at La Santé prison in Paris starting October 21, AFP learned Monday from sources close to the case, following his summons by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to appear before the Paris court.

Contacted by AFP, neither his lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, nor the PNF wished to comment on the date and place of the former president's incarceration, a first in the history of the French Republic.

At the end of the day, however, sources close to the case told AFP that the former president was expected to appear at the Santé prison (14th arrondissement) on October 21 to be imprisoned, confirming information from RTL.

Summoned by the PNF, Mr. Sarkozy arrived at the Paris judicial court around 1:45 p.m. in a car with tinted windows, before leaving shortly before 2:30 p.m. without making a statement, AFP journalists noted. His entourage then maintained radio silence regarding the terms of his incarceration.

The Santé remand center is one of only two in the Paris region, along with Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne), to have a "vulnerable area" (QPV), where prominent figures are detained. However, the former president could also be placed in solitary confinement there to ensure his safety.

On September 25, the Paris Criminal Court found the former head of state guilty of criminal conspiracy for allowing his closest associates to approach Muammar Gaddafi's Libya with a view to illegally financing his victorious 2007 presidential campaign. It sentenced him to five years in prison.

Despite having appealed the judgment, Nicolas Sarkozy, 70, will be imprisoned due to the deferred detention order with provisional execution issued against him. A measure that the court justified by the "exceptional gravity of the acts" committed by a political leader then aspiring to the highest office of the Republic.

Unlike the two other people sentenced to detention in this trial, the intermediary Alexandre Djouhri and the banker Wahib Nacer, Nicolas Sarkozy, who has always responded to court summonses, was given time before his incarceration to make professional arrangements.

The arrest should theoretically take place within four months of this summons, but Nicolas Sarkozy will be imprisoned "relatively soon," a judicial source told AFP at the time of the judgment.

- Request for release -

The former champion of the right will thus become on October 21 the first former head of state of a European Union country to go behind bars.

Upon his entry into prison, Mr. Sarkozy's defense team will be able to file a request for release with the Court of Appeal. The Court has a maximum of two months to rule on this request. If rejected, Mr. Sarkozy will be able to file new requests.

On Wednesday evening, according to the story in the daily newspaper Le Figaro, he gathered around a hundred former colleagues, including the current secretary general of the Élysée, Emmanuel Moulin, for a "farewell drink."

"The Dreyfus Affair began with a forgery!" he told them, according to the newspaper that attended. "'The Count of Monte Cristo' begins with a forgery! Every time, the truth always triumphs, it's only a matter of time."

Criticized by the right and the far right, Nicolas Sarkozy's imprisonment before his appeal is considered "fair" by 61% of those polled, compared to 38% who find it "unfair", according to an Elabe poll carried out from September 29 to 30.

The seven defendants convicted in the Libyan trial have appealed, as has the National Front for National Defence (PNF). The prosecution has also appealed acquittals handed down by the Paris court, such as that of Eric Woerth, treasurer of the 2007 campaign.

A new trial will therefore be held in the coming months before the Paris Court of Appeal.

At first instance, the court considered that money flows did indeed leave Libya but that the procedure did not demonstrate that they arrived in the Sarkozy campaign coffers.