The end of a nightmare: the Paris Court of Appeal on Monday ordered the release of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been imprisoned for twenty days following his conviction in the case of the Libyan financing of his presidential campaign.

During the hearing of his request this morning, the public prosecutor's office had requested the release from prison under judicial supervision of the former head of state, who appeared via videoconference from La Santé prison. The court imposed a broader no-contact order, notably with the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, and a travel ban preventing him from leaving the country.

Nicolas Sarkozy is expected to be released from prison today and will await his appeal trial, which is scheduled to begin in March. The Paris Court of Appeal examined his request for release during a public hearing lasting approximately fifty minutes.

“Prison is hard, very hard, certainly for any prisoner, I would even say it’s exhausting,” testified Nicolas Sarkozy, who followed the debates via videoconference with a closed face, offering, through the screen, the first image in history of a former President of the Republic in prison.

I want to pay tribute to the prison staff who have been exceptionally humane and who have made this nightmare, because it is a nightmare, bearable, he continued, dressed in a dark blue jacket, sweater and shirt.

I am fighting for the truth to prevail, said the former president, 70, who has appealed his five-year prison sentence for conspiracy handed down on September 25.

In front of his wife Carla Bruni and two of his sons, Pierre and Jean, the Attorney General, Damien Brunet, asked that Nicolas Sarkozy's request to release him under judicial supervision with a ban on contacting witnesses and co-defendants be granted.

It is undeniable that Mr. Sarkozy presents undeniable guarantees of representation, given that his family ties in the country and his financial interests are well known to your court, he observed.These guarantees of representation in court are rarely found at such a high level before your court.

Nicolas Sarkozy was imprisoned just under a month after his conviction. This unprecedented detention for a former president of the Republic sparked heated debate. It is also a first in the European Union, where no former head of state has ever been imprisoned.

Like Xavier Bertrand, the LR president of Hauts-de-France, several right-wing leaders have said they want their former champion to get out of prison.

Unique means

The Paris criminal court found him guilty of knowingly allowing his associates to approach Muammar Gaddafi's Libya to solicit covert funding for his victorious 2007 presidential campaign.

More than the conviction itself, it was the arrest warrant sending him to prison, with no possibility of appeal, that had caused astonishment. For the judges, it was justified by the exceptional gravity of the offenses. For Nicolas Sarkozy, it was motivated by hatred.

However, in deciding on his release, the judges of the Court of Appeal did not rely on the same criteria as those used for the arrest warrant. Nicolas Sarkozy's appeal places his incarceration within the framework of pre-trial detention, which differs from that of serving a sentence.

Detention was only possible if it was the only way to protect evidence, prevent pressure or collusion, prevent escape or recidivism, or protect him.

Detention, a threat to Sarkozy

Jean-Michel Darrois, one of the former president's lawyers, assured the court that the idea that there could be a repeat of the offence and that there could be pressure on the witnesses should be excluded from his mind.

It is the detention that constitutes a threat to Nicolas Sarkozy, not the other way around, stressed Me Christophe Ingrain, another of his lawyers, observing that he had been placed in isolation for security reasons and that he had benefited from the protection of two agents in detention.

Among those convicted who were jailed after the September 25 judgment, the appeals court has already released former banker Wahib Nacer, 81, under judicial supervision, but has kept intermediary Alexandre Djouhri in custody due to the risk of flight and pressure on protagonists in the case.

In their case, the public prosecutor's office had requested that they remain in detention.

The precise dates of the appeal trial, which have not yet been officially announced, should be communicated to the lawyers on Thursday, sources close to the case told AFP.