🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy plans a personal account next month called A Prisoner’s Diary, chronicling his time spent in jail.

The announcement was made shortly following Sarkozy was released while he appeals the court ruling related to illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to secure political financing from the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.

Time in Custody: Solitary Musings

“In prison one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he reflects in an extract, indicating the account is more about his reflections during seclusion instead of wider commentary on the overcrowded and struggling French prison system.

“Quiet is absent, which doesn’t exist in La Santé, where noise is constant sound,” he continues. “The noise is alas constant. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world is strengthened behind bars.”

Court Appearance: Describing the Ordeal

During his plea for freedom, Sarkozy participated remotely from a room in prison, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute the correctional officers, showing great humanity, easing this ordeal tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“I never imagined that in my seventies, I would end up incarcerated. It’s a hardship forced upon me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

First of Its Kind

The former president, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, set a precedent as ex-leader from the EU and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to serve time in prison.

Prior to imprisonment he declared he would use his time to write a book.

Books in Prison

It is not certain if he found the opportunity to go through the texts he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the famous story, in which a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned but escapes to exact retribution.

Daily Reality

The former leader was held secluded due to safety concerns in a cell roughly 100 square feet featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail in the city. Guards occupied a neighbouring cell.

Reports indicated that he had eaten just yogurt in prison worried that any food may have been contaminated. Although he had access to cook for himself but refused this, according to reports. It is uncertain if the memoir includes his dietary choices.

Legal Perspective

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client daily while he was in prison, informed the court security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He has faced menacing messages, heard shouts after dark plus rapid actions in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Case Background

His incarceration began last month when a French court gave him a five-year sentence for illegal collaboration in connection with efforts to secure political donations for his 2007 presidential race.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial set for the coming spring.