Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy has had his electronic tag removed after serving just over three months of a one-year sentence for corruption, Paris prosecutors announced on Thursday, May 15. Sarkozy, 70, was ordered to wear the tag in February as an alternative to imprisonment, a historic first for a former French head of state.
France’s highest appeals court mandated the electronic tag in December 2024 after finding Sarkozy guilty of attempting to illicitly obtain favors from a judge. Sarkozy, who has faced numerous legal challenges since leaving office in 2012, maintains his innocence and is appealing the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
While the electronic tag has been removed, Sarkozy’s release is conditional, requiring him to report any international travel, comply with court summonses, and receive visits from probation officers. “I can confirm that Nicolas Sarkozy was granted conditional release on May 14,” his lawyer Jacqueline Laffont-Haik told AFP.
Sarkozy faces further legal proceedings, with a French court scheduled to rule in September on separate charges that he accepted illegal campaign financing from the late Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi.
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