After his release, the former president, convicted of illegal financing of his election campaign, will wear an electronic bracelet. He is prohibited from communicating with other defendants and witnesses in the case.
During a video conference hearing, Sarkozy described his imprisonment as "very difficult" and "exhausting." The former president's lawyers insisted on his early release.
Sarkozy, who was sentenced to five years in prison at the end of September, began serving his sentence on October 21 in the Parisian prison of Santé. In a solitary cell measuring 9 square meters, he was allowed to meet with visitors three times a week and use a mobile phone, but only for calls to numbers approved by law enforcement. During his time in prison, he was under guard.
Thus, Nicolas Sarkozy became the first French president in the post-war period to end up behind bars. Given his age, he had the right to apply for a sentence reduction.
Earlier, a court in Paris found him guilty of conspiracy in the case of illegal financing of the 2007 election campaign when he became a presidential candidate. According to the prosecution, Muammar Gaddafi, the former dictator of Libya, allegedly transferred Sarkozy about 50 million euros to support his campaign. However, on other charges related to the embezzlement of public funds and corruption, Sarkozy was acquitted.
On December 18, 2024, the Paris Court of Cassation upheld the decision of the appellate court, which stated that Sarkozy should serve a year of actual imprisonment for corruption and influence peddling. As a result, the former president spent a year under house arrest with an electronic bracelet. This case concerned his attempts to influence an investigation related to donations from L'Oréal co-owner Liliane Bettencourt.
The French authorities stripped Sarkozy of the honors of the Legion of Honor and the Order of Merit, marking the first such case since 1945.
