Image source, Getty Images
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- author, Laura Josey
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Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was released from prison on Monday, after serving just three weeks of his five-year prison sentence for illegal financing.
Sarkozy will now be subject to strict judicial supervision and will be banned from leaving France before the appeal process, which will be held next year.
The 70-year-old former president entered prison on October 21 to serve a five-year prison sentence on charges of conspiring to finance his 2007 election campaign with money from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His legal team immediately filed a request for his release.
Sarkozy wrote on social media after his release: “My energy is focused solely on the goal of proving my innocence.”
He added: “The truth will prevail… the end of the story has not been written yet.”
Image source, Reuters
“One step forward”
Sarkozy’s car was seen leaving La Sainte prison in Paris shortly before 3 p.m. (2:00 p.m. GMT) on Monday, less than an hour and a half after the court accepted his early release. Shortly after, he arrived at his home in western Paris.
Christophe Engren, one of Sarkozy’s lawyers, welcomed his client’s release as a “step forward” and said his legal team was now preparing for the appeal trial scheduled for March.
One of the conditions for Sarkozy’s release is that he not contact any other witnesses in the so-called “Libyan file” or any employee in the Ministry of Justice.
During his imprisonment, Sarkozy received a visit from Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin. The visit prompted 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, highlighting what they considered a conflict of interest, given that the minister is a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy.
Speaking to a Paris court via video on Monday morning, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “exhausting” and a “nightmare.”
He said he never had a “crazy idea” to ask Gaddafi for money, and said he “would never admit to something I didn’t do.”
Sarkozy also praised the prison staff who made his time in prison “bearable”. “They showed exceptional humanity,” he added.
Sarkozy’s wife, singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s children came to the courtroom to support him.
Image source, Reuters
“Threaten him”
Sarkozy is the first former French president to be imprisoned since World War II, with Nazi collaborator leader Philippe Pétain being imprisoned for treason in 1945.
Sarkozy has been held in a cell in the isolation ward since entering prison.
It had a toilet, shower, desk, small stove, and small television, for which he paid a monthly fee of about $16.00. He also had the right to a small refrigerator.
Sarkozy could receive information from abroad and make family visits, as well as maintain written and telephone contact, but he was only allowed to exercise for one hour a day, which he did alone in the pavilion’s separate courtyard.
Two bodyguards were stationed in nearby cells, which Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said was due to Sarkozy’s status. Nunez said there was a “clear threat against him.”
Sarkozy served as president from 2007 to 2012. Since leaving office, he has faced several criminal investigations and was forced for several months to wear an electronic ankle bracelet due to a ruling last December of trying to bribe a judge to obtain confidential information about one of the cases in which he is being tried.
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