Former French interior minister Claude Guéant to be freed from prison

France's 77-year-old former interior minister Claude Guéant, who has been jailed for two months in Paris, is to be released on Wednesday.

One-time an aide to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, Guéant has been behind bars since 13 December over to failing to deliver fines and damages he was ordered to pay in 2017 in a case regarding underhand cash bonuses from the Interior Ministry.

Guéant's lawyer has argued that the former minister has "paid in full" his debts via loans from relatives.

He added that Géuant's "health would significantly deteriorate" in the Fleury-Mérogis prison, south of Paris, as he suffers from a form of epilepsy.

The former interior minister has however been granted conditional release, without an electronic tag, starting this Wednesday. 

• French former interior minister begins jail time for misuse of public funds

In another case concerning the a polling fraud case, Guéant was handed a one-year jail term for nepotism on 21 January, that was suspended under a deferred detention warrant.

His lawyer has appealed the ruling.

The Balkany affair

In related news, Patrick Balkany, the former right-wing mayor of the Paris suburb Levallois-Perret who was convicted of tax fraud in 2019, was returned to prison on Monday.

Balkany, a close friend of former President Sarkozy, was jailed after being found guilty of financial fraud and money-laundering.

He was released in February 2020 on health grounds but had been returned to prison after a judge revoked his conditional release.