Ex French President Sarkozy will be released from jail

The Paris appeal court ruled that former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will be released from prison and placed under judicial supervision.

This came less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year prison sentence for a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

Sarkozy, 70, was expected to be released from La Santé prison in Paris on Monday afternoon.

The court said he would be banned from leaving French territory and contacting key people in the case, including co-defendants and witnesses.

The appeal hearing is expected to be held later, possibly in the first half of next year.

Following his conviction on September 25, Sarkozy became the first former French head of state to be sent behind bars in modern times.

He denies wrongdoing.

On October 21, he was jailed pending appeal but immediately requested early release.

Speaking via video conference from prison at the hearing on Monday, Sarkozy argued that he always fulfilled all the requirements of justice.

“I never thought I would be in prison at the age of 70. This ordeal was imposed on me and I lived through it. It is difficult, very difficult,” he said.

Sarkozy also paid tribute to the prison staff, who he said helped him get through “this nightmare”.

Sarkozy’s wife, supermodel-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and her two sons attended the hearing at the Paris courthouse.

Monday’s hearings did not include reasons for the sentence.

Still, Sarkozy told the court he had not requested any funding from Libya’s long-time ruler, Muammar Gaddafi.

“I will never admit to something I didn’t do,” he said.

Under French law, eviction is the general rule at the appeal stage; Detention remains an exception.

The former president, who ruled from 2007 to 2012, faces separate trials, including a Nov. 26 ruling by France’s highest court over illegal financing of his failed 2012 re-election campaign and an ongoing investigation into alleged witness tampering in the Libya case.

In 2023, he was convicted of corruption and influence peddling for trying to bribe a judge in exchange for information about a legal case involving him.

The Supreme Court, France’s highest court, later upheld the decision.