Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy began a five-year prison sentence on Tuesday for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, arriving at La Santé prison in Paris in a stunning downfall for a man who led the country between 2007 and 2012.

The 70-year-old former conservative leader left his home for the car journey to the prison, walking hand in hand with his wife Carla Bruni and cheered by supporters chanting “Nicolas, Nicolas” and singing La Marseillaise, the French national anthem.

Sarkozy, who was convicted and sentenced last month, is the first former French leader to be jailed since Marshal Philippe Pétain, a Nazi collaborator, after World War Two.

Shortly after heading for La Santé, Sarkozy published a lengthy post on X claiming he was the victim of “revenge and hatred.”

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