Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, had been found guilty of seeking funding for his successful election campaign from Muammar Gaddafi, the late dictator of Libya, and sentenced to five years
Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from jail and returned home after his lawyers appealed against his conviction for being part of a criminal conspiracy to seek election funding from Libya.
The 70-year-old former president was freed from La Sante prison in Paris shortly before 3pm and departed in a car with tinted windows, escorted by police motorcyclists.
Sarkozy, who was president from 2007 to 2012, had been found guilty of seeking funding for his successful election campaign from Muammar Gaddafi, the late dictator of Libya, and sentenced to five years.
He entered La Santé prison in Paris on Oct 21 as the first former head of an EU state to be incarcerated.
During his 21 days in jail, he ate only yoghurt because he refused to eat the meals provided or cook for himself as he “does not know how to cook an egg”, one of his associates told Le Point.
A Paris court ruled on Monday that he could be freed immediately, pending an appeal. The decision means Sarkozy is once again presumed innocent.
He will not be allowed to leave France during the process and is forbidden from communicating with anyone in the justice department, including minister Gerald Darmanin.
The justice minister had visited Sarkozy in prison, raising eyebrows across France.
In a statement on X on Monday, the former president said: “As I regain my freedom and my family, I want to say how grateful I am to all those who have written to me, supported me and defended me.
Your thousands of messages of support have deeply moved me and given me the strength to endure this ordeal.
“The law has been applied. I will now prepare for the appeal trial. My energy is focused solely on the single goal of proving my innocence. The truth will prevail. This is a lesson that life teaches us.
“The end of the story remains to be written.”
Under French law, he can only be kept behind bars if no other way can be found to safeguard evidence, prevent witness tampering, stop him from escaping or reoffending, or to protect him.
Unlike previous criminal charges for corruption, Sarkozy will not be ordered to wear an electronic ankle tag under the terms of his release.
The appeals trial is due to take place in March.
The former leader appeared via video call from prison, wearing a dark blue jacket and flanked by lawyers, saying: “I will never confess to something I didn’t do.” He said he would fight “for the truth to prevail”.
“It’s hard, very hard, certainly for any prisoner. I would even say it’s gruelling,” he said, adding that prison staff had made “this nightmare... bearable”.
The former president has spent more than two weeks in La Santé, separated from the general prison population, with two bodyguards occupying a neighbouring cell to ensure his safety.
Prison wardens said the guards were an insult to their profession, but Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, insisted they were necessary in view of Sarkozy’s “status” and “the threats against him”.
Sarkozy late last month also received a visit from Gerald Darmanin, the justice minister, despite warnings from Remy Heitz, France’s top prosecutor, that this risked “undermining the independence of magistrates” before the appeals trial.
Sarkozy is the first French leader to be incarcerated since Philippe Petain, the Nazi collaborationist head of state jailed after the Second World War.
Sarkozy’s social media account last week posted a video of piles of letters, postcards and packages it said had been sent to him, including a collage, a chocolate bar and a book.
On the day he entered jail, a crowd sang the national anthem outside his home and urged him to “come back quick”.
Damien Brunet, a state prosecutor, asked that Sarkozy’s request for release be granted.
“The risks of collusion and pressure on witnesses justify the request for release under judicial supervision,” he said.
In the courtroom showing their support were Sarkozy’s wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s sons.
Sarkozy has faced a flurry of legal woes since losing his re-election bid in 2012, and was twice convicted of corruption before the most recent charge.
In the so-called “Libyan case”, prosecutors said aides, acting in Sarkozy’s name, had struck a deal with Gaddafi in 2005 to illegally fund his victorious presidential election bid.
Investigators believe that in return, Gaddafi was promised help to restore his international image after Tripoli was blamed for the 1988 bombing of a plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, and another over Niger in 1989, killing hundreds of passengers.
The court convicted Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy over the plan. But it did not conclude that he received or used the funds for his campaign
