Convicted rogue trader Jerome Kerviel said on Sunday he would return to France, where he faces a jail sentence, after first saying he would stay in Italy, reports Reuters.
Kerviel, 37, had appealed to France's president to intervene in his case. The trader has spent over three years fighting charges stemming from massive market bets that brought French bank Societe Generale close to collapse in 2008.
He was convicted of breach of trust, forgery and fraudulent data manipulation. Earlier this year, he began walking from Rome to Paris after meeting the pope. He has portrayed his case as one individual's struggle against high finance.
French judges required him to report to a French police station by Sunday evening to start serving his sentence, which was confirmed by France's highest appeals court in March. If he stayed in Italy, he would be considered a fugitive and France would issue a European warrant for his arrest.
"I'm going to have dinner with my friends ... and then return to France," Kerviel told reporters in the Italian town of Ventimiglia, close to the French border. "The fight will go on. Whatever happens, Societe Generale and finance in general will continue to hear from me."
Kerviel did not say what he planned do after crossing the Italian border. He may decide to report to the southern French police station of Menton by midnight. Or he may keep walking towards Paris until he is arrested.
Speaking to a crowd of TV reporters following him throughout the weekend, Kerviel had earlier appealed to French President Francois Hollande to give immunity to unnamed witnesses he said would be willing to testify in his favour. He claimed he was not guilty and that his criminal conviction was unfair.
Read more of this report from Reuters.
Read Mediapart's coverage of the affair here.