Conservative politician was convicted of allowing people close to Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, who died in 2011, to obtain resources and illegally finance his 2007 presidential campaign
The former president of the association left prison this Monday (10), after spending 20 days behind bars due to a conviction for criminal association, and will await the trial of the appeal. Sarkozy became, on October 21, the first French head of state to be arrested since the end of the Second World War and the first from a country already part of the European Union.
However, on the same day he requested parole, as permitted by law for people over 70 years of age, which was granted by the Paris Court of Appeal this Monday, albeit with judicial control measures and a ban on leaving the country.
The 70-year-old conservative politician left the Parisian La Santé penitentiary shortly before 3 pm (11 am in Brasília) in a vehicle with tinted windows and escorted by the police, confirmed a source close to the case.
“The law has been applied. Now I will prepare for the appeal hearing. All my energy is concentrated on a single objective: to prove my innocence. The truth will prevail”, Sarkozy wrote on the X network hours after leaving prison.
During the analysis of his request for release hours earlier, the former president participated in the hearing via videoconference, in which he thanked the prison system employees who made “this nightmare bearable (…)”. “It’s very difficult, very difficult. It certainly is for all the detainees. I would even say it’s exhausting,” Sarkozy told the court, in which his wife, singer Carla Bruni, and two of his children were also present, according to a journalist from AFP.
The former president was in solitary confinement in the Paris prison, with two police officers installed in the neighboring cell for his protection.
Lawyer Christophe Ingrain said Sarkozy’s stay in prison constituted a “threat” to his client. The Prosecutor’s Office was also in favor of the release of the former Minister of the Interior, but with judicial control measures.
Controversial conviction
Sarkozy was convicted of allowing people from his circle to approach the Libya of Muammar Gaddafi, who died in 2011, to obtain resources and illegally finance his victorious 2007 presidential campaign. Although the process did not allow it to be demonstrated that the money was used “in the last resort”, the court highlighted that the resources left Libya and convicted Sarkozy of criminal association due to the “exceptional gravity of the facts”.
The conviction was accompanied by great controversy, as the court ordered his arrest without waiting for the outcome of the appeal. “This morning they arrest an innocent man”, he said before entering the penitentiary, denouncing a “judicial scandal” and a “Way of the Cross”.
Now, the former president will be able to await the trial of the appeal, which is expected to begin in March, but will not be able to contact one of his former allies, the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, according to the decision of the appeals court.
Darmanin’s visit to his former mentor in prison on October 29 caused unease among the judges. France’s top prosecutor, Rémy Heitz, accused him of “attacking the independence of magistrates”.
“The Minister of Justice always applies court decisions”, those around Darmanin simply said. He had argued that his visit to Sarkozy corresponded to the “duty of vigilance” that is part of his position.
The conviction was not the first against Sarkozy, who already wore an electronic ankle bracelet at the beginning of the year. He added two others for corruption, influence peddling and illegal campaign financing in 2012, and is still the target of other ongoing processes.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
