Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been granted early release from jail, three weeks into a five-year prison term for taking part in a criminal conspiracy.
He will be subject to strict judicial supervision and barred from leaving France.
Sarkozy’s car was seen leaving La Santé prison in Paris just before 15:00 (14:00 GMT), less than an hour-and-a-half after a court agreed to his early release.
On 21 October the former centre-right president, 70, was sentenced to five years for conspiring to fund his 2007 election campaign with money from late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
His lawyers immediately filed a request seeking his release, pending an appeal trial next March.
One of the conditions of Sarkozy’s release is that he does not contact any justice ministry employees. During his incarceration, he was visited by Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin.
The visit prompted 30 French lawyers to file a complaint against Darmanin, highlighting what they said was a conflict of interest as Darmanin was a former colleague and friend of Sarkozy’s.
Speaking to a court in Paris via video link, Sarkozy described his time in solitary confinement as “gruelling” and “a nightmare”.
Public prosecutor Damien Brunet recommended that Sarkozy’s request for release be granted, but that the former president be banned from contacting other witnesses in the so-called “Libyan dossier”.
Sarkozy, who has always denied any wrongdoing, told the court via video link that he had never had the “mad idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and stated he would “never admit to something I haven’t done”.
Sarkozy also paid tribute to prison staff who had made his time in prison “bearable”. “They have shown exceptional humanity,” he said.
Sarkozy’s wife, the singer and model Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, and two of the former president’s sons were present in the courtroom to support him.
Sarkozy is the first French ex-leader placed behind bars since World War Two Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was jailed for treason in 1945.
Since entering prison, Sarkozy has been held in a cell in the isolation wing.
He had a toilet, a shower, a desk, a small electric hob and a small TV – for which he paid a monthly €14 (£12) fee – and the right to a small fridge.
He also had the right to receive information from the outside world and family visits as well as written and phone contact – but was is in effect in solitary confinement. He was allowed just one hour a day for exercise, by himself in the wing’s segregated courtyard.
Two bodyguards were stationed in nearby cells, which the interior minister Laurent Nuñez was due to Sarkozy’s status. There was “obviously a threat against him”, Nuñez said.
Sarkozy was president from 2007-2012. Ever since he left office, he has been dogged by criminal inquiries and for months had to wear an electronic tag around his ankle after a conviction last December for trying to bribe a magistrate for confidential information about a separate case.
