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Three inmates at the La Santé prison were placed in special custody after footage was shared online showing taunts and threats made against former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, right after he arrived at the Paris jail to serve a sentence over misuse of funds from Libya.
In one of the videos seen by Euronews, the person filming laughs at provocations lobbed at the former French leader, including “Oh Sarko, wake up” and “you killed Gaddafi”.
In another clip, an inmate says Sarkozy has “just arrived … he’s going to have a hard time.”
“We know everything, we’re going to avenge Gaddafi,” the person said.
Sarkozy, who came to La Santé on Tuesday to serve his five-year sentence for conspiring to finance his 2007 election campaign using funds from ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, has been assigned round-the-clock police protection.
Gaddafi was killed by Libyan militants in 2011 after the outbreak of a civil war and a NATO intervention. However, one conspiracy theory has blamed Sarkozy for Gaddafi’s death as part of a corruption cover-up.
According to a statement made by the Paris prosecutor’s office on Wednesday, a search was conducted on the premises and two mobile phones were seized.
The footage “shows that there is a danger, of course, for the detainee, President Nicolas Sarkozy, and that we must pay particular attention to his conditions of detention,” French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Wednesday evening for CNews channel.
The three inmates questioned over the incidents are to appear in court, according to Darmanin. They will either remain in disciplinary quarters or be moved to another prison, he added.
“We’re not going to take any risks,” Darmanin emphasised.
‘Truth will prevail’
Sarkozy has contested both the conviction and a judge’s decision to incarcerate him pending appeal. His lawyers said Tuesday that they filed an immediate request for his release.
In a show of defiance and while on his way to prison, Sarkozy released a statement on social media declaring that “an innocent man” was being locked up.
“I will continue to denounce this judicial scandal,” he wrote. “The truth will prevail.”
Sarkozy told Le Figaro newspaper that he would bring three books in prison — the maximum allowed — including two tomes of Alexandre Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo, in which the hero escapes from an island prison before seeking revenge. He also picked a biography of Jesus Christ.
“I’m not afraid of prison. I’ll hold my head high, including in front of the doors of La Santé,” he told La Tribune Dimanche newspaper last week. “I’ll fight until the end.”
Sarkozy has repeatedly said he is the victim of “a plot” staged by people linked to the Libyan government and denounced the 25 September verdict as a “scandal”.
Additional sources • AP