Nicolas Sarkozy has returned to the streets after 20 days in prison. The Paris Court of Appeal that examined this Monday the request for provisional release of the former French president – imprisoned after being convicted in the case of Libyan financing of his presidential campaign – has agreed to his release under judicial control.
The Prosecutor’s Office had recommended his release considering that “the [bajo] “The risk of collusion and pressure on witnesses justify accepting the request,” according to what the representative of the public prosecutor’s office, Damien Brunet, had stated this morning at the hearing.
During the hearing in which the request for provisional release was examined, Sarkozy declared that his detention has been “hard, very hard, as it undoubtedly is for any prisoner.” He also said he wanted to pay tribute to the French prison staff, who “have been of exceptional humanity and have made this nightmare, because it is a nightmare, bearable,” he said in a videoconference from the Santé prison. He also pointed out that he had not “imagined waiting until he was 70 to go to prison.”
The execution of the release has been rapid. At around 3:00 p.m., the former president left through the main door of La Santé prison in his official car, with the windows closed, and a police escort, a scene witnessed by fifty media outlets and a dozen onlookers who were recording with their mobile phones.
Sarkozy entered the Paris prison on October 21, weeks after being sentenced to five years in prison for “association of criminals” in the trial for the Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign. A sentence decreed with a provisional execution order and immediate entry into prison (although a suspension of several weeks was agreed to give the convicted person time to organize).
The Paris judicial court then considered proven the “corruption pact” that allowed the president’s close collaborators to agree with senior officials of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime on a flow of money for the hidden financing of the campaign that took him to the Elysée in 2007.
At 70 years old, Sarkozy thus became the first former French president under the current political system (established in 1958) to go to prison. Also the first former head of state of a European Union country to go to jail.
The judicial process continues
The court’s decision generated a campaign of indignation in the French conservative media, especially those of millionaire Vincent Bolloré, who supported Sarkozy’s own thesis of judicial persecution and “revenge” motivated by “the hatred” of some of the magistrates. The fact that he went to prison before the appeal of the sentence was resolved was particularly questioned.
For the judges, the decision was justified by the “exceptional seriousness” of the facts. In addition, the magistrate pointed out that it is the usual procedure in sentences of five or more years in prison. In any case, the former president’s lawyers presented a request for provisional release immediately after his entry into prison.
The appeal process should take place starting in March, according to French media citing judicial sources, although the specific date has not yet been officially announced. Furthermore, in another different judicial process, the so-called Bygmalion case, in which Sarkozy was convicted of illegally financing his campaign, the Court of Cassation must rule on the 26th of this month. The last instance of the French justice must decide whether to confirm the sentence of one year in prison, with six months of conditional release, issued against the former president in the first instance and confirmed on appeal.
In solitary confinement
During his stay in the Santé, the former president has been placed in solitary confinement to avoid contact with other prisoners, protected by security agents installed in an adjacent cell. The presence of personnel in charge of the security of the former head of state (armed) inside the prison aroused protests from several directors of French prison establishments, as well as unions of prison officials. But according to the Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, the measures are justified by the “status” and the “threats that weigh on Nicolas Sarkozy.”
Furthermore, at the end of October, Sarkozy received a visit from the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, a former protégé of the former head of state, before becoming a defector to Emmanuel Macron’s party in 2017. A visit that also sparked a wave of criticism, especially from the magistrates. In fact, in a rare public intervention against a member of the Government, the State Attorney General, Rémy Heitz, stated that this gesture posed “the risk of impeding serenity” and, therefore, “attacking the independence of the magistrates” who must judge the appeal process.
In fact, one of the demands that the judges have included in the judicial control of Sarkozy is the prohibition of contacting – among others – with the current Minister of Justice.
Others convicted
Of the three convicted in the Libya case who also received an order for immediate imprisonment, the Court of Appeal had already decreed the release under judicial control of the former banker Wahib Nacer, 81, but had decided to keep the intermediary Alexandre Djouhri in prison. For the latter, sentenced to six years in prison and a fine of three million euros, the court had considered that he presented “especially weak” guarantees in relation to a possible risk of flight.
In addition, Justice has also estimated that “there continue to be risks of pressure” on the witnesses in the case, in particular on Muammar Gaddafi’s former chief of staff, “Bechir Saleh”, convicted. in absentia in the same case.
Source: www.eldiario.es
