Carla Bruni has been spotted riding a scooter around Paris on the eve of the imprisonment of her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Wearing dark, oversized sunglasses and a sturdy helmet, the 57-year-old former First Lady looked calm as she made her way along a cobbled street today.
She paired a long black coat with grey trousers as she and a companion were seen chatting while riding through the city.
It comes after her husband, former French president Sarkozy was ordered to report to prison after being sentenced to five years for his role in a scheme to fund his 2007 presidential campaign with money from Libya.
He is due to begin his jail term at La Santé prison on Tuesday, but his lawyers have vowed to immediately apply for his release.
A Paris court found him guilty of criminal association in September, making him the first modern French head of state to face actual jail time.
Sarkozy, 70, was accused of receiving millions of euros in illicit funds from the regime of former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddaffi.
French prosecutors said he had gone into a ‘Faustian pact of corruption with one of the most unspeakable dictators of the last 30 years’.
During the lengthy trial, judges heard evidence that between 2005 and 2007, intermediaries linked to Sarkozy helped arrange the transfer of up to €50 million from Tripoli to Paris to bankroll his campaign.
Former French first lady Carla Bruni was today seen riding a scooter in Paris – a day before her husband Nicolas Sarkozt is set to begin his prison term
Bruni was seen wearing a black coat and a pair of oversized sunglasses as she rode along a cobbled street with a companion
Her latest sighting is one of many public appearances she has made after Sarkozy was convicted and sentenced
Sarkozy has repeatedly denied the claims, calling them politically motivated and insisting there was no proof he took Libyan money. His lawyers have also filed an appeal to overturn his conviction.
The accusations first emerged after Gaddaffi’s government was toppled in 2011 and hasd haunted Sarkozy ever since.
Bruni’s sighting is the latest in a string of public appearances since her husband’s conviction.
Last month, she was seen rubbing shoulders with stars as she attended a fashion show in Paris.
The former model and singer was seen in poses with fellow ’90s model Linda Evangelista and actress Amber Valletta at Saint Laurent’s show.
Subsequent appearances at the Christian Dior and Messika shows saw her in the company of Frenc hmodel and documenmtary maker Farida Khelfa and Morrocan businessman Sidney Toledano.
As her husband prepares for prison, Carla Bruni is also under criminal investigation. She was charged in July 2024 with witness tampering and participating in a criminal association linked to the same Libyan financing scandal.
Investigators allege she took part in efforts, dubbed Operation ‘Save Sarko’, to influence or silence a key witness, Lebanese-French businessman Ziad Takieddine, who had claimed he personally delivered suitcases of cash from Tripoli to Sarkozy’s campaign team.
Prosecutors say Bruni helped facilitate contacts and communications designed to persuade Takieddine to retract his statements, including through intermediaries and coded phone numbers.
Bruni stood by her husband’s side as a judge delivered the ruling. Her biographer wrote in The Times that she will visit him ‘every day’ in prison
Last month, she was seen partying with other stars at the Saint Laurent Paris Fashion Week show
She was placed under judicial supervision and banned from contacting other individuals involved in the case, except for her husband.
Bruni has denied any wrongdoing and has not been tried, but the potential penalties are severe, with witness tampering in France carrying a lengthy prison sentence.
Last month, her biographer, who penned Carla: A Secret Life wrote in The Times that she would prioritise cisiting her husband in prison.
According to Lahouri: ‘While she waits for her own fate to be decided, Bruni, an excellent cook, will visit 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 prison as quickly as possible.’
Reports in France suggest Sarkozy will start his term this week, likely in solitary confinement for his own security.
He has already faced multiple legal battles in recent years. In 2021 he was convicted in a separate corruption and influence-peddling case, and in 2023 a court upheld a one-year sentence over illegal campaign financing related to his 2012 re-election bid.
This latest conviction, tied to alleged Libyan funding, is by far the most serious.
The couple’s legal troubles have cast a shadow over their once-glamorous image.
La Santé prison in Paris, France, where Sarkozy is set to begin his prison term. His lawyers are expected to ask for his release as soon as he arrives in prison
On Monday, it was reported that current French president Emanuel Macron had secretly met with Sarkozy at the Élysée Palace.
The meeting last Friday is said to have lasted for more than an hour.
Meanwhile, when asked about Sarkozy’s pending imprisonment, France’s justice minister Gérald Darmanin said: ‘I will go see him in prison and, as Minister of Justice, I will be concerned about his safety.’
