Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy will spend Christmas at home. Twenty days after being imprisoned in Santé prison in Paris, he was finally able to return home on Monday. despite having been sentenced in the first instance to five years in prison for the crime of illicit association In the case of Libyan financing of his 2007 presidential campaign, the French courts have granted him conditional release under judicial supervision. The former president left prison at 2:30 p.m. in a car escorted by police. This time, there was no welcoming committee when he arrived at his home in Paris's 16th arrondissement, aside from the press and a few onlookers. Pending the appeals process, scheduled for March of next year, the courts have prohibited him from leaving the country and from having contact with anyone connected to the case. He is also prohibited from contacting Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin, a personal friend of Sarkozy. The Justice Minister visited him in prison, a gesture that drew criticism from the judiciary. The explicit prohibition against contact is a clear disapproval of Darmanin's gesture. The appeals court, which examined Sarkozy's request for release early Monday morning, ruled that his continued pretrial detention was unjustified because there was no risk of evidence tampering, pressure, or collusion. Sarkozy appeared via video conference from prison this morning. His wife, Carla Bruni, and two of his children were physically present at the hearing. "It's hard, very hard," the former Élysée Palace resident admitted about his time in prison, also calling it a "nightmare." The prosecutor had requested his release, albeit with "strict" judicial oversight, given that the sentence is not final and that the former conservative head of state is already 70 years old, an age at which the French justice system rarely keeps people in prison without a final sentence, especially if there is no possibility of a plea bargain.

The former president of France Nicolas Sarkozy has already spent the first 24 hours closed. Sentenced to five years in prison for criminal association For having received money from Moammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime in the 2007 election campaign financing case, Sarkozy entered the Santé prison, a penitentiary located in Paris's 14th arrondissement, on Tuesday. Like all French prisons, it is overcrowded: its occupancy rate is 191%. There are almost twice as many inmates as the 757 spaces provided.