A Paris court orders the former president of France Nicolas Sarkolaz to prison, but he is not exactly free
A Paris court ruled on Monday to free former French President Nicolas Sarkozy from prison under judicial supervision.
Monday’s announcement came less than three weeks later Sarkozy began serving a five-year sentence For committing crimes in the financing of his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.
Sarkozy will be banned from leaving France, the court said. An appeals hearing is expected at a later date, possibly in the spring.
Sarkozy, 70, became the first provincial head of state in modern times to be sent behind bars after his conviction on September 25. He denies any wrongdoing. He was arrested on Oct.
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During Monday’s hearing, Sarkozy, speaking from Paris’ la Santé prison via Video Conference, argued that he always meets all the requirements of justice.
“I never thought that I would find prison at 70. This problem was decided for me, and I lived with it. It is difficult, very difficult,” he said.
Sarkozy also paid prison staff he said helped him with “this violence.” Sorkozy’s wife, the dissident singer Carla Bruni-sarkozy, and her two sons, attended the hearing at the Paris Courthouse.
The hearing on Monday did not involve sentencing purposes.
However, Sarkozy told the court that he never asked Libya’s long-time ruler Muammar Qaddafi for any money. “I will never admit to something I didn’t do,” she said.
Thomas Samson / Gamma-Rapho / Gety 
Under French law, deportation is set to be a pending general rule, while detention remains the exception. The judges weighed whether Sarkozy poses a flight risk, can oppress Witnesses, or can obstruct justice.
Medvocate Generalien Damien Brunet, who represents the public interest, requested that Sarkozy be extradited and placed under judicial supervision.
That request is accepted, Sarkozy is expected to leave the prison of Paris ‘la Santé within hours.
The former president, who ruled from 2007 to 2012, is facing different proceedings, including by the French Supreme Court for the illegal financing of his illegal bid, and an ongoing investigation into alleged evidence in the Libya case.
In 2023, he was found guilty of forgery and influence peddling to bribe a magistrate for information on a legal case where he was in possession of the law. France’s highest court, the court of Cassation, later upheld the decision.
