Nicolas Sarkozy walks free from jail 20 days into five year sentence
Former French President to be released after less than three weeks
Nicolas Sarkozy is to be released from prison - after just 20 days into his five-year prison sentence.
Listen to this article
The 70-year-old will be placed under judicial supervision and will be banned from leaving the French territory, a Paris appeals court ruled on Monday.
The former French president was sentenced for criminal conspiracy to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya. He denies wrongdoing.
The disgraced president becomes the first French president in living memory to be imprisoned after his conviction on September 25.
An appeal trial is expected to take place later.
Nazi collaborationist leader Philippe Pétain was the only other French leader to be locked up, sentenced on treason charges in 1945.
Sarkozy held the position of French president between 2007-2012, with his son, Louis, 28, calling on supporters to make themselves known following the sentence.
Arriving at the prison last month, Sarkozy held hands with wife Carla Bruni as the pair put on a united front for waiting media.
The former leader arrived at the 19th-Century prison in the Montparnasse district, located south of the River Seine, shortly after 08:30 local time flanked by security.
Read more: Woman who was stabbed in the neck in Birmingham dies of her injuries
Read more: BA boss says ‘you should avoid moving the M25’ to expand Heathrow
The accusations trace their roots to 2011, when a Libyan news agency and Gadhafi himself said the Libyan state had secretly funnelled millions of euros into Sarkozy's 2007 campaign.
Despite multiple legal scandals that have clouded his presidential legacy, Sarkozy remains an influential figure in right-wing politics in France and in entertainment circles by virtue of his marriage to Bruni-Sarkozy.