Monday 10/November/2025 – 01:00 PM
The French Public Prosecution asked the Paris Court of Appeal to release former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, while placing him under judicial surveillance and preventing him from communicating with the rest of the defendants and witnesses in the Libyan financing case for which he is serving a period of detention. The court is expected to issue its decision in this regard at 1:30 p.m.
French prosecutors request the conditional release of Nicolas Sarkozy
The Public Prosecutor explained that the seriousness of the acts attributed to Sarkozy and the size of the potential punishment should not be decisive factors in the decision to continue his detention, noting that the basic criterion is what is stipulated in Article 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which specifies the reasons for pretrial detention, such as preserving evidence, preventing collusion or pressure on witnesses, and protecting the accused himself.
The former president stated from his imprisonment that his experience in prison was very harsh, describing it as a nightmare, stressing that he was innocent and had never requested any funding from the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, adding: I never imagined that I would experience prison at the age of seventy, but I live this ordeal and endure it. I love my country and I trust that the truth will emerge in the end.
Sarkozy also paid tribute to the prison staff, saying: They showed a great deal of humanity and made this nightmare more bearable.
It is noteworthy that a French court had sentenced Nicolas Sarkozy to five years in prison on charges of involvement in illegal financing of his election campaign in 2007 with money believed to have come from the Gaddafi regime, making him the first former French president to go to prison.
