Former French president Sarkozy granted release from prison after three weeks
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was granted early release three weeks into his five-year prison sentence for participating in a criminal conspiracy.
He will be subject to strict judicial control and will be banned from leaving France.
Sarkozy’s car was seen leaving La Santé prison in Paris just before 3pm (14:00 GMT), less than an hour and a half after the court ordered Sarkozy’s early release.
On October 21, the 70-year-old former center-right president was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiring to finance the 2007 election campaign with money from former Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His lawyers requested his immediate release until his appeal hearing next March.
One of the conditions of Sarkozy’s release is that he not have contact with any Ministry of Justice employees. During his imprisonment, he was visited by Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin.
The visit led 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, citing a conflict of interest because Darmanin was a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy.
Speaking via video link to a court in Paris, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “exhausting” and “a nightmare”.
Prosecutor Damien Brunet recommended that Sarkozy’s request for release be accepted, but that the former president be banned from meeting other witnesses in the so-called “Libya file”.
Sarkozy, who always denied that he had done anything wrong, stated in court via video link that he never had a “crazy idea” to ask Gaddafi for money, and that he would “never accept something I did not do.”
Sarkozy also paid tribute to prison staff who made his time in prison “bearable”. “They showed an extraordinary example of humanity,” he said.
Sarkozy’s wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and the former president’s two sons were also present in the courtroom to support him.
Sarkozy became the first former French leader to be sent behind bars since World War II Nazi collaborator leader Philippe Pétain was imprisoned for treason in 1945.
Sarkozy has been kept in a cell in the isolation ward since he entered prison.
He was entitled to a toilet, a shower, a desk, a small electric stove, a small television for which he paid a monthly fee of 14 euros (£12) and a small refrigerator.
He also had the right to receive information from the outside world and family visits, as well as written and telephone contact, but in reality he was in solitary confinement. He was allowed to exercise for only one hour a day, alone, in the wing’s reserved courtyard.
Two guards were placed in nearby cells, where interior minister Laurent Nuñez was assigned due to Sarkozy’s status. Nuñez said there was “clearly a threat against him.”
Sarkozy was president between 2007 and 2012. Since leaving office, he has been hounded by criminal investigations and had to wear an electronic tag on his ankle for months after he was convicted last December for trying to bribe a judge for confidential information about a separate case.
