SocGen trader Kerviel gets out of jail

By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Thierry Leveque

PARIS (Reuters) - Jerome Kerviel, the Frenchman blamed by his company for the world's biggest rogue trading scandal, left jail on Tuesday after winning a legal battle against detention.

Kerviel, 31, walked free from the Sante prison in Paris after five weeks in custody while investigators continue to probe heavy losses at French bank Societe Generale.

Under the terms of his conditional release, there are strict limits on his movements and contacts.

SocGen unveiled 4.9 billion euros ($7.64 billion) of trading losses on January 24 and blamed them on unauthorized stock market deals carried out by Kerviel, a junior trader at the bank.

Looking relaxed in a dark suit and open-necked pink shirt, the former trader stepped into a Paris side street accompanied by his lawyer Elisabeth Meyer.

Kerviel did not speak to reporters but paused and smiled briefly for cameras and was driven off in a small black car.

"He's going to take a rest," Meyer told reporters.

Kerviel is under formal investigation for breach of trust, computer abuse and falsification.

He has acknowledged trading without approval but has told police his supervisors must have known of his activities.

Judges placed him under formal investigation shortly after the scandal broke but allowed him to remain free under judicial supervision, a system which resembles bail.

Prosecutors appealed and he was sent to the Sante, a prison often used for high-profile detainees, on February 8.

That decision was reversed on Tuesday and prosecutors said that this time they would not appeal.

Under the terms of his conditional release, there are strict limits on his movements and contacts.

"Jerome is very happy, I don't think he expected it," Meyer said after visiting him in prison following the court session and before he was actually freed.

Kerviel's dizzying stock market bets totaling 50 billion euros under the noses of SocGen have spawned a handful of hastily written books about the photogenic former trader.