Claude Guéant, imprisoned for nearly two months, will be released on Wednesday.
The 77-year-old former interior minister was detained on December 13 at the Health prison. Justice criticizes Nicolas Sarkozy’s former right-hand man for his lack of effort to pay the fine and damages he was ordered to pay in 2017 in the case of the ministry’s cash bonuses inside. A few days after his incarceration, Guéant had made a request for adjustment, examined on January 19 by a sentence enforcement judge, who put his decision under advisement on Monday.
Sentenced in another case
Meanwhile, Claude Guéant was sentenced on January 21 in his absence in another case, that of the Elysée polls. He was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, including eight months for favoritism, with a deferred committal order. If he leaves prison, however, he will not return there for this last sentence: he has indeed appealed, which suspends the application of this sanction until a second trial.
Former prefect and then boss of the National Police appointed by Charles Pasqua, Claude Guéant had been in 2007 the architect of the victorious presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, who had made him his secretary general at the Elysée. In 2011, he took over as head of the Interior Ministry, until Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat against François Hollande in 2012.
Source: 20minutes
