A French court has refused to release a woman pardoned for killing her abusive husband, prompting an outcry over a case that has become a cause celebre.

Jacqueline Sauvage received a pardon from President Francois Hollande in January for the 2012 killing of her husband Norbert Marot, a violent alcoholic who she said raped her and her daughters.

She was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2014 for the murder of her husband who she shot three times in the back a day after their son hanged himself.

More than 400,000 people signed a petition demanding the release of Sauvage, 68, who has become a symbol of the suffering of domestic abuse victims in France.

On Friday, Sauvage's lawyers Nathalie Tomasini and Janine Bonaggiunta declared themselves "in shock" after a court in Melun, south of Paris, refused to grant her conditional bail.