Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been released from jail, three weeks into a five-year prison term for taking part in a criminal conspiracy.
He will be subject to strict judicial supervision and barred from leaving France ahead of an appeal trial due to be held next year.
On 21 October, the former centre-right president, 70, was sentenced to five years for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His legal team immediately filed a request seeking his release.
Writing on social media after the release, Sarkozy said his “energy is focused solely on the single goal of proving my innocence.”
“The truth will prevail… The end of the story is yet to be written.”
Sarkozy’s car was seen leaving La Santé prison in Paris just before 15:00 (14:00 GMT), less than an hour-and-a-half after a court agreed to his early release.Soon after, he was seen arriving at his home in western Paris.
Christophe Ingrain, one of Sarkozy’s lawyers, hailed his client’s release as “a step forward” and said they would now be preparing for the appeal trial expected in March.
One condition of Sarkozy’s release is he does not contact any other witnesses in the so-called “Libyan dossier” or any justice ministry employees.
During his incarceration, he was visited by Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin. The visit prompted 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, highlighting what they said was a conflict of interest as Darmanin was a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy’s.
Speaking to a court in Paris via video link on Monday morning, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “gruelling” and “a nightmare”.
He said he had never had the “mad idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and stated he would “never admit to something I haven’t done”.
Sarkozy also paid tribute to prison staff who had made his time in prison “bearable”. “They have shown exceptional humanity,” he said.
Sarkozy’s wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s sons were present in the courtroom to support him.
Sarkozy is the first French ex-leader placed behind bars since World War Two Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945.
Since entering prison, Sarkozy has been held in a cell in the isolation wing.
He had a toilet, a shower, a desk, a small electric hob and a small TV – for which he paid a monthly €14 (£12) fee – and the right to a small fridge.
He also had the right to receive information from the outside world and family visits, as well as written and phone contact – but was in effect in solitary confinement. He was allowed just one hour a day for exercise, which he did by himself in the wing’s segregated courtyard.
Two bodyguards were stationed in nearby cells, which the interior minister Laurent Nuñez said was due to Sarkozy’s status. There was “obviously a threat against him”, Nuñez said.
Sarkozy was president from 2007 to 2012. Ever since he left office, he has been dogged by criminal inquiries and for months had to wear an electronic tag around his ankle after a conviction last December for trying to bribe a magistrate for confidential information about a separate case.
Source: BBC