Ex-French president Sarkozy leaves jail pending appeal in conspiracy case

France’s former president Nicolas Sarkozy left a Paris prison on Monday after an appeals court granted him release under judicial supervision.

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

Sarkozy’s black car with tinted windows was seen leaving the prison in the direction of his home in western Paris. He later quickly stepped into his home.

The brief scene was in contrast to his very public incarceration three weeks earlier, when he walked down the alley near his house hand-in-hand with his wife and former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as he waved to supporters.

The former president, 70, is banned from leaving the French territory and from being in touch with key people including co-defendants and witnesses in the case, the court said. An appeals trial is expected to take place later, possibly in the spring.

Sarkozy became the first former French head of state in modern times to be put behind bars after his conviction on September 25. He denies wrongdoing.

He was jailed on October 21 pending appeal but immediately filed for early release.

During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy, speaking from Paris’s La Sante prison via videolink, argued he has always met all justice 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.

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

Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of his sons attended the hearing at the Paris court.

Monday’s proceedings did not involve the motives for the sentencing.

Still, Sarkozy told the court he never asked Libya’s longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi for any financing.

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

Under French law, release is the general rule pending appeal, while detention remains the exception.

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain, praised “normal implementation of law” in a brief statement.

“The next step is the appeal trial and our work now … is to get prepared for that,” he said.

In a rare decision, the court specifically banned Sarkozy from being in touch with Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin.

Mr Darmanin, a former conservative who once considered Sarkozy as his mentor before rejoining President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party in 2017, visited Sarkozy in prison last month. Some French magistrates criticised the move as undermining the independence of judges.

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

In 2023, he was found guilty of corruption and influence peddling for trying to bribe a magistrate in exchange for information about a legal case in which he was implicated. France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, later upheld the verdict.