Truth will prevail – Sarkozy

INNOCENCE: FORMER FRANCE PRESIDENT RELEASED FROM JAIL AS HE APPEALS SENTENCE

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FRENCH. President Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris yesterday as part of the commemorations marking the 107th anniversary of the 1918 Armistice ending World War I.

(AFP)

France's former president Nicolas Sarkozy vowed on Monday that the truth would win out after he was released from prison under judicial supervision ahead of an appeal trial over Libyan funding.

Sarkozy, 70, earlier on Monday left La Sante prison in Paris - a 20-day experience the former president called a "nightmare", after a judge ordered his release.

Sarkozy, who maintains his innocence, arrived home in a car with tinted windows, escorted by police motorcyclists.

"The truth will prevail," he wrote on X shortly afterwards.

"I will now prepare for an appeal. My energy is focused solely on proving my innocence," he added, thanking his supporters.

"Your thousands of messages moved me deeply and gave me the strength to endure this ordeal."

A lower court in September found the right-wing politician who was head of state from 2007 to 2012 - guilty of seeking to acquire funding from Muammar Gaddafi's Libya for the campaign that saw him elected.

He was sentenced to five years behind bars.