🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy will soon publish a personal account in the coming weeks titled Diary of a Prisoner, detailing his experience spent in jail.

This news emerged less than two weeks following the former president was released while he appeals the court ruling for unlawful coordination connected to efforts to acquire political financing linked to the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.

Life Behind Bars: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he writes in an extract, indicating the account is more about his musings from isolation instead of extensive analysis on the strained and struggling French prison system.

“Silence escapes me, not present in that facility, where noise is a lot to hear,” he states. “The noise persists relentlessly. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Sharing the Struggle

At his release request hearing, Sarkozy was present remotely from his cell, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He expressed in court: “I wish to commend the correctional officers, displaying remarkable compassion, easing this ordeal bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

“It never crossed my mind at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal I must endure. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark on any prisoner due to its intensity.”

Historical Context

The former president, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, became the inaugural former head from the EU and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to experience jail.

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

Reading Material

It is not certain whether he had time to review and analyze the volumes he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a blameless person is sentenced to jail then breaks out to seek vengeance.

Life in Confinement

He remained in isolation due to safety concerns in a space of about nine sq metres with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison in Paris. Guards stayed in a neighbouring cell.

Sources mentioned that he consumed only yoghurts during his stay because he feared any food may have been contaminated. Although he had access to prepare his own meals but refused this, as per accounts. Unclear remains if he will detail what he ate in prison.

Lawyer’s Statements

The legal representative, Christophe Ingrain each day throughout the jail term, stated during proceedings he would be safer outside jail rather than in custody. “He received threats against his life, heard shouts during nighttime and the urgent intervention in a neighbouring cell as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison on 21 October following a French court gave him a half-decade term on conspiracy charges related to a plan to obtain campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.

He maintains his innocence and has appealed against the verdict, and a fresh trial set for the coming spring.