Carla Bruni appears determined to stand by her husband’s side, Nicolas Sarkozy, during the five-year prison sentence imposed on him, as described by her biographer. French journalist Besma Lahoury, author of Carla: A Secret Life, in an article in Times stresses that the former First Lady of France is “smart, bright and fiercely devoted”, estimating that she “will visit him daily and move heaven and earth to free him as quickly as possible.”

Sarkozy’s sentencing last Thursday to five years in prison was a historic development, as he was found guilty of criminal conspiracy over the efforts of his close associates to secure illegal funding for the 2007 election campaign from the Muamar Gaddafi. Instead, the court acquitted him of other charges, including corruption and illegal campaign financing.

At the same time, Bruni is also facing her own trial adventures, having been charged with withholding evidence and possible witness tampering. As of July 2024, she has been under court supervision and has been barred from communicating with anyone involved in the case. But she too, like Sarkozy, denies any wrongdoing.

According to her biographer, how Bruni will react in these circumstances is a foregone conclusion: “While she waits for her own fate to be decided, Bruni, who is an excellent cook, will be visiting her husband every day, I’m willing to bet. Smart, bright and fiercely loyal, she will move heaven and earth to get him out of jail as quickly as possible.”

The 70-year-old former French president is expected to be taken in October to La Sante prison in Paris, with 12-square-metre cells and narrow beds just 80 centimetres wide – a reality far from the luxury he experienced at the Elysian Palace or their villa in Provigny. At the same time, he has said he will appeal, denouncing the decision as “extremely serious for the rule of law.”

Despite the appeal, the sentence will be increased, with the ruling seen as heavier than many expected. Exiting the courtroom, Sarkozy said: “If they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison, but with my head held high.”

The trial court, however, decided not to immediately place the former president in detention, giving prosecutors a month to let him know when he would begin serving his sentence, to avoid the humiliation of his immediate arraignment. Judge Natalie Gavarino ruled that Sarkozy was guilty of “allowing his close associates to seek financial support from the Libyan regime”. This is the first time a former French president has been convicted of attempting to use foreign funds in such a way.

Sarkozy, who was elected in 2007 and defeated in 2012, denied all charges during his three-month trial, which included 11 other co-defendants, including three former ministers. Despite the repeated scandals that have tarnished his posterity, he remains an important figure on the French right, and his relationship with Bruni keeps him in the spotlight and in the world of public image.

The allegations have their roots in 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gaddafi himself claimed that his regime had funneled millions of euros to the Sarkozy campaign. A year later, Mediapart published an intelligence document that spoke of a €50 million funding deal. Sarkozy called it a forgery and filed a libel suit. French investigators later deemed it authentic, though no completed transfer of money was ever proven.

The case is also linked to trips to Libya by associates when he was interior minister. In 2016, businessman Ziad Takiedin claimed to have carried suitcases full of cash to Paris, but then recanted, leading to a new investigation into possible witness pressure – a case in which both Sarkozy and Bruni have been provisionally charged.

Takiedin, also a defendant, died last week in Berrito, aged 75, without having attended the trial. Prosecutors have argued that Sarkozy knowingly benefited from a “corruption deal” with the Gaddafi regime, which collapsed with the Arab Spring in 2011.

Throughout the trial, Sarkozy insisted it was a frame-up based on fabricated evidence and called it a “revenge plot by liars and crooks” linked to Gaddafi’s entourage. He even argued that the accusations were in retaliation for his stance in 2011, when France spearheaded military intervention to overthrow the Libyan leader.

“What credibility can statements stamped with the mark of revenge have?” he asked during his plea.