[Regnum] Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has been granted parole in his 2012 election campaign spending scandal. This was reported on May 6 by RTL radio, citing the Paris Court of Appeal.
The court sided with the defense and granted Sarkozy's request for a mitigated sentence. Now the former president is free to dispense with the electronic bracelet he was required to wear while serving his six-month sentence in this case.
In late September 2025, a Paris court sentenced Sarkozy to five years in prison for allegedly financing his 2007 election campaign by the Libyan government. The former French president was also fined €100,000 and banned from holding public office for five years. The trial established that Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign was financed by then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who donated €50 million to the French politician, which helped him win the election and remain president of France until 2012.
On October 21, 2025, Sarkozy and his wife, Carla Bruni, were transferred to La Santé Prison in Paris. In November, the Paris Court of Appeal approved Sarkozy's release. He was released from prison under judicial supervision, with a ban on leaving France. Sarkozy stated that he never imagined that at 70 years old, he would find himself behind bars. He emphasized that this ordeal was forced upon him and that it was extremely difficult to bear.
On March 9, 2026, BFMTV reported that Sarkozy would be jailed again due to the court's refusal to consolidate two previous sentences handed down to him in separate criminal cases. The convictions involved combining the politician's prison terms in the wiretapping case and a trial related to falsifying accounts during the 2012 presidential campaign. The former president's lawyers requested that the sentences be consolidated and that the time served for one sentence be counted toward the other. However, the court ruled that the conditions for combining the sentences were not met. Therefore, Sarkozy faced another six months in prison.
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