A Paris court has sentenced France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy to five years, three of which must be served behind bars, for criminal conspiracy tied to alleged Libyan funding of his successful 2007 presidential campaign. He’ll be imprisoned within weeks, irrespective of any appeal. The image of a former French president heading to prison is brutal and France is shaken by it.

The law is being used not just to punish, but to shape the field of politics.

What makes today’s decision extraordinary isn’t just the verdict. It’s the court’s choice to immediately enforce its judgment. Appeal or not, Sarkozy will be behind bars. This so-called exécution provisoire is the French legal mechanism that strips an appeal of its usual suspensive effect. Sarkozy remains presumed innocent in law

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