Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from jail and will await his appeal trial early next year at home under strict conditions (13:40, 14:47), which include prohibitions on talking to other accused or any officials from the country’s justice ministry.
The former president will also be banned from leaving France, pending appeal.
Sarkozy, accompanied by his wife, Carla Bruni, left the La Santé prison early afternoon and returned to his residence in west Paris (15:03, 15:17, 15:24).
His lawyers said today’s decision was just the first step in a broader process of challenging the original sentence, adding “the next step is the appeal trial” (13:49).
Earlier, Sarkozy had told a Paris appeals court by video link that his three weeks in jail had been “very hard” and “gruelling” (10:31).
Elsewhere,
79 people were hospitalised, mostly with light injuries, after two trains collided near Bratislava in Slovakia last night in a second high-profile crash in the last month (12:37).
A man has gone on trial in the eastern German city of Magdeburg on charges of murdering six people and attempting to murder hundreds more by deliberately ploughing his SUV into a packed Christmas market last December (16:40).
A Russian opposition activist arrested in Poland has admitted he worked as an undercover agent for Russia’s FSB security service and informed on other opposition figures, court documents claim (12:02).
Ursula von der Leyen has offered an olive branch to the European parliament to head off a revolt over her plans for a radical shake-up of the EU budget (11:45).
Carmakers in Europe have received their first deliveries of chips from the Chinese owned Nexperia plant following a lift on the ban on exports last week (12:54).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
According to France Info, there are currently no plans for a public statement from Sarkozy this evening.
