Inmates at Paris’ La Santé prison have reportedly threatened former French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the death of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, according to a cell phone video circulating online.
Sarkozy, 70, began serving a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday after a Paris court found him guilty of criminal conspiracy in a scheme to fund his 2007 presidential campaign with alleged money from Gaddafi. Notably, Sarkozy later led a NATO-backed operation that toppled Gaddafi, resulting in the Libyan leader’s death.
Videos from La Santé show purported inmates shouting threats and cat-calling Sarkozy in the prison’s solitary confinement wing. “We will avenge Gaddafi! We know everything, Sarko! Return the billions of dollars!” one man said. “He’s all alone in his cell… he’s going to have a bad time.”
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed the heightened security measures. Two police officers from the security detail assigned to former presidents will be stationed permanently in cells adjacent to Sarkozy’s. “The former president of the republic is entitled to protection because of his status. There is obviously a threat against him, and this protection is being maintained while he is in detention,” Nunez told Europe 1 radio on Wednesday.
Sarkozy, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, denies all charges and maintains they are politically motivated. His legal team has requested early release pending appeal proceedings.
The investigation into the alleged campaign funding began in 2013 after Gaddafi’s son, Saif al-Islam, claimed his father had provided Sarkozy with €50 million ($58 million). Sarkozy’s role in the 2011 NATO intervention that removed Gaddafi contributed to Libya’s subsequent instability and ongoing crisis.
