Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has described his three weeks in prison as tiring and “a nightmare,” and has asked a Paris court to release him while his appeal is heard, the BBC reports.
The former French president was sentenced to five years in prison on the 21st of October for receiving campaign funding for his 2007 election from Libya’s tyrant Muammar Gaddafi. Sarkozy’s lawyers have filed a motion to have him released from prison. If the motion is granted, Sarkozy could be released as early as the evening of the 10th of November. Prosecutor Damien Brunet has recommended that Sarkozy’s request be granted, but that the former president be barred from contacting other witnesses in the so-called “Lebanese case.”
Sarkozy, who denies any wrongdoing, told the court in a video call that he had never had the “crazy idea” of asking Gaddafi for money and that he would never admit to something he had never done.
The former president also thanked prison staff for helping to make his time in prison bearable.
Sarkozy is the first former French president to be imprisoned since 1945. Since his arrest, Sarkozy has been in an isolated wing of the prison, with two of his bodyguards in cells next to him. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said in October that the former president of the republic was entitled to special protection, adding that there had been clear threats.
The politician was president of France from 2007 to 2012. Even in office, he was regularly involved in criminal investigations, and after his conviction last December he had to wear an electronic tracking device around his ankle for several months. Sarkozy tried to bribe a court official to obtain information about another case.
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