The court agreed to release Nicolas Sarkozy under judicial supervision, which would include a ban on leaving France.

A Paris court granted former French President Nicolas Sarkozy early release from jail on Monday, pending an appeal, just weeks after he started a five-year sentence for conspiring to raise campaign funds from Libya.

The former conservative president, 70, was jailed on October 21 after a court found him guilty in September of criminal conspiracy over efforts by close aides to procure funds for his 2007 presidential bid from late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

He was acquitted of all other charges, including corruption and receiving illegal campaign financing.

Sarkozy’s prison sentence had been enforced swiftly because of the “extraordinary seriousness” of the crime, judge

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