Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been granted early release from prison, just weeks after he started a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.
A Paris court agreed to release Sarkozy under judicial supervision, pending an appeal of last month's verdict that found him guilty of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Sarkozy is forbidden from contacting other people indicted in the case, as well as the current Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who visited Sarkozy in prison last month.
He is due to leave La Sante prison Monday afternoon, after 20 days behind bars.
His prison sentence was enforced immediately after the verdict, because of what the judge called the "extraordinary seriousness" of the crime.
During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy spoke via video from the prison, saying the experience of being behind bars was “hard, really hard, as it is certainly be for any detainee. I would even say it is exhausting".
Sarkozy has consistently denied wrongdoing, saying he is a victim of revenge and hatred.
He is under formal investigation in another case for being accessory to witness tampering.
He has appealed the guilty verdict, but said he would respect any demand from the judiciary if he were freed.
"I am French, sir,” he told the judge. “I love my country. I am fighting for the truth to prevail. I will comply with all the obligations imposed on me, as I always have," he said.
(with Reuters)
