By Emmanuel Nduka Obisue
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from prison and placed under judicial supervision, following a ruling by a Paris appeals court on Monday.
This comes less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy linked to illegal campaign financing from Libya.
Sarkozy, 70, was expected to leave Paris’ La Santé prison later in the day. According to the court, he will be prohibited from leaving France and from contacting co-defendants or witnesses in the ongoing case. A full appeals trial is anticipated to take place in the spring.
During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy appeared via video link from prison and insisted he had complied with all judicial requirements.
“I had never imagined I would experience prison at 70. This ordeal was imposed on me, and I lived through it. It’s hard, very hard,” he said.
He also expressed gratitude to prison staff, describing their assistance as vital in enduring “this nightmare”. His wife, singer and former model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of his sons attended the session at the Paris courthouse.
Sarkozy again rejected accusations that he solicited funds from Libya’s late ruler Moammar Gadhafi to finance his 2007 presidential campaign. “I will never admit something I didn’t do,” he told the court.
Under French law, defendants are typically released pending appeal unless there are exceptional circumstances warranting continued detention. Sarkozy’s lawyers had sought his early release shortly after his incarceration on October 21.
Sarkozy, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, faces several other legal challenges. On November 26, France’s highest court is expected to rule on a separate case concerning illegal financing of his unsuccessful 2012 re-election campaign. He is also under investigation for alleged witness tampering related to the Libya case.
In 2023, Sarkozy was convicted of corruption and influence peddling for attempting to bribe a magistrate in exchange for confidential information about another legal matter. The Court of Cassation, France’s highest judicial body, upheld that conviction.
Sarkozy, who maintains his innocence in all cases, remains one of France’s most polarizing political figures, and the first former head of state in modern French history to serve prison time.
