PARIS: France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy has received a prison visit from the justice minister, a source close to the case said on Thursday, despite a prosecutor warning that it could undermine judicial independence.
Gerald Darmanin met Sarkozy on Wednesday evening at La Sante prison in the presence of the jail’s director, and discussed the former head of state’s security arrangements, the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Before he was locked up, Darmanin said he intended to visit Sarkozy to ensure his security conditions were adequate for his “exceptional status.”
Top prosecutor Remy Heitz at the time warned that such a visit risked “undermining the independence of magistrates.”
Fifty-seven percent of French people also disapproved of the visit, according to a survey of 1,025 people published last week by Taluna Harris.
The right-wing leader who led France from 2007 to 2012 was found guilty last month of trying to get election campaign funding from Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya.
The 70-year-old was handed a five-year prison term for criminal conspiracy.
Sarkozy’s legal team has requested his release pending his appeal trial, but said he is expected to remain in jail for at least “three weeks to a month.”
Two security officers are stationed in a neighboring cell to ensure his protection, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said.
Sarkozy is the first former head of a European Union state to be jailed, and the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state who was jailed after World War II.
He has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012, having already been convicted in two other cases.
Sarkozy still enjoys some popularity on the French right. Days before starting his prison sentence, he visited French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace.