🔗 Share this article

The ex-president of France will soon publish a book this autumn titled A Prisoner’s Diary, detailing the period served in jail.

The revelation came less than two weeks after the former president gained freedom while he contests his conviction on charges of illegal collaboration connected to efforts to acquire political financing provided by the regime of the late Libyan dictator.

Prison Experience: Personal Reflections

“Inside jail visibility is limited, and activities are scarce,” he writes in a preview, implying the account is more about his thoughts from solitary confinement as opposed to wider commentary of the overcrowded and struggling correctional facilities in the country.

“I forget silence, not present in La Santé, where one hears constant sound,” he continues. “The racket unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, personal reflection is fortified in prison.”

Release Hearing: Describing the Ordeal

At his release request hearing, Sarkozy was present remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, showing great humanity, and who have made this ordeal manageable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It has an impact on any prisoner as it’s exhausting.”

First of Its Kind

He, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, became the inaugural ex-leader from the EU and the first postwar leader from France to serve time in prison.

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

Reading Material

It remains unclear did he manage to go through the texts he brought with him: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work the classic tale, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned then breaks out to take revenge.

Life in Confinement

The former leader remained in isolation for his own security in a cell approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet in the Paris jail located in the capital. Two bodyguards occupied the next cell.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted only yoghurts during his stay because he feared meals provided may have been contaminated. Options were available to cook for himself but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.

Lawyer’s Statements

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain each day throughout the jail term, informed the court security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He received threats against his life, has heard screaming at night and the urgent intervention in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Legal Proceedings

His incarceration began last month when a French court imposed a half-decade term on conspiracy charges over a scheme to acquire campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He maintains his innocence challenging the decision, with a new trial planned for early next year.