A court in Paris today released former President Nicolas Sarkozy from prison early, pending the decision on his appeal. This came just weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya, Agence France-Presse reported, BTA reported.
The 70-year-old former conservative president was sentenced to prison on October 21 after a court in September found him guilty of criminal conspiracy in connection with attempts by his close associates to secure campaign funds for his 2007 presidential election from the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
He was acquitted of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign funding.
Last week, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev called for Sarkozy's release. He recalled the role of the then French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Cecilia, who in 2007 played a key role in the return of the Bulgarian medics imprisoned in Libya. They were detained in 1999 in Benghazi on charges of infecting children with the AIDS virus and spent over eight years in prison. The medics returned home on July 24, 2007 on a French government plane, accompanied by Cecilia Sarkozy and European Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.