Three weeks into a five-year prison sentence for participating in a criminal conspiracy, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was freed from custody. Before an appeal trial that is scheduled for next year, he will be subject to stringent judicial surveillance and prohibited from leaving France.
The 70-year-old former center-right president was given a five-year term on October 21 for plotting to use funds from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign. His legal team submitted a request for his release right away.
Following the release, Sarkozy wrote on social media that his “energy is focused solely on the single goal of proving my innocence.” The truth will win out. The story’s conclusion has not yet been written.
Less than an hour and a half after a court approved Sarkozy’s early release, his car was spotted leaving La Santé jail in Paris shortly before 15:00 (14:00 GMT). He was spotted arriving at his house in western Paris shortly after. One of Sarkozy’s attorneys, Christophe Ingrain, praised his client’s release as “a step forward” and stated that they would now prepare for the anticipated March appeal trial.
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