Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has entered a Paris jail where he will serve a five-year sentence over seeking to acquire Libyan funding for his 2007 presidential run.
"Welcome Sarkozy!", "Sarkozy's here," reporters heard convicts shouting from their cells.
Sarkozy left his home in Paris this morning hand-in-hand with his wife Carla Bruni to go to the capital's La Santé prison to start his sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.
Sarkozy, who was the conservative president of France between 2007 and 2012, becomes the first former French leader to be jailed since Nazi collaborator Marshal Philippe Pétain after World War II.
"I'm not afraid of prison. I'll keep my head held high, including at the prison gates," Sarkozy told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper ahead of his incarceration.
Sébastien Cauwel, who heads the country's prison system including the high-profile La Santé jail, said the former president would be held in isolation.
"He will be able to access the exercise yard, on his own, twice a day, he will have access to an activities room while on his own and he will be alone when inside his prison cell," Mr Cauwel told RTL Radio.
Watch: Sarkozy waves to supporters before leaving for prison
In a post on X before entering prison, Mr Sarkozy said he was "innocent".
"It is not a former president of the republic being jailed this morning, but an innocent man," he said. "I have no doubt. The truth will prevail."
Sarkozy to have access to TV, landline and private shower
The conviction caps years of legal battles over allegations that his 2007 campaign took millions in cash from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who was later overthrown and killed during the Arab Spring uprisings.
While Sarkozy was found guilty of conspiring with close aides to orchestrate the scheme, he was acquitted of personally receiving or using the funds.
He has consistently denied wrongdoing and called the case politically motivated, saying judges were seeking to humiliate him. He has appealed, but the nature of his sentence means he must go to jail as his appeal process plays out.
The former president has already been convicted in a separate corruption case, in which he was found guilty of trying to obtain confidential information from a judge in return for career favours, serving that sentence by wearing an electronic ankle monitor.
Sarkozy's isolation unit at La Santé prison in Paris, which in the past has housed leftist militant Carlos the Jackal and Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, features inmates who are housed in single cells and kept apart during outdoor activities for security reasons.
Conditions are similar to the rest of the prison: cells measure 9 x 12 square metres and, following renovations, now include private showers.
Sarkozy will have access to a television - for a monthly fee of €14 - and a landline telephone.
'The Count of Monte Cristo' on reading list
Sarkozy's lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois told Franceinfo radio that Sarkozy was getting ready for prison by bringing along pullovers and earplugs.
"He has put together a few bags in which he has put some pullovers as prisons can be cold and some earplugs as there could also be a lot of noise," said Mr Darrois.
Sarkozy had also told Le Figaro he would take three books for his first week behind bars, including Alexandre Dumas' 'The Count of Monte Cristo' - the story of a man unjustly imprisoned who plots his revenge against those who betrayed him.
The decision to jail a former president has sparked outrage among Sarkozy's political allies and the far right.
However, the ruling reflects a shift in France's approach to white-collar crime, following reforms introduced under a previous Socialist government.
In the 1990s and 2000s, many convicted politicians avoided prison altogether.
To counter perceptions of impunity, French judges are increasingly issuing "provisional execution" orders - requiring sentences to begin immediately, even as appeals are pending - legal experts and politicians said.
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has been banned from running for office under the same "provisional execution" provision, pending an appeal early next year.
According to an 1 October Elabe poll for BFM TV, 58% of French respondents believe the verdict was impartial, and 61% support the decision to send Sarkozy to jail without waiting for the appeal.
President Emmanuel Macron, who had warm relations with Sarkozy and his wife, said yesterday that he had met Sarkozy ahead of his incarceration.
Justice minister Gerald Darmanin, who is also close to Sarkozy, told France Inter radio he would go and visit the former president.
