🔗 Share this article

The ex-president of France plans a memoir next month titled Diary of a Prisoner, detailing the period endured in jail.

The revelation came less than two weeks after the ex-leader gained freedom while he appeals his conviction for criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to secure presidential race money provided by the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Personal Reflections

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, and nothing to do,” he reflects in an extract, implying the memoir centers around his musings while in isolation instead of a broader observation on the strained and crisis-hit French prison system.

“Quiet is absent, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where there is constant sound,” he continues. “The din unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world is strengthened while incarcerated.”

Release Hearing: Describing the Ordeal

While appealing for release, he participated remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as gruelling. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, showing great humanity, easing this ordeal tolerable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“I never imagined at this stage of life, I would end up incarcerated. It’s a trial I must endure. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It affects one every inmate due to its intensity.”

Historical Context

Sarkozy, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, became the inaugural ex-leader from the EU and the first postwar leader of France to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he had said he planned to utilize the opportunity to write a book.

Books in Prison

It is not certain whether he had time to read and critique 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 an innocent man is sentenced to jail later flees to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

The former leader was held secluded due to safety concerns in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility located in the capital. Guards occupied the next cell.

Sources mentioned that he consumed just yogurt during his stay due to concerns meals provided might have been spat on. Options were available to cook for himself yet he declined, as per accounts. Unclear remains if he will detail meals during incarceration.

Lawyer’s Statements

The legal representative, who visited his client every day during the incarceration, told the release hearing his safety would improve released rather than in custody. “He has faced menacing messages, heard shouts at night plus rapid actions in a neighbouring cell during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Charges and Sentence

His incarceration began on 21 October when a French court imposed five years in prison on conspiracy charges in connection with efforts to acquire political donations for his 2007 presidential race.

He disputes the charges and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial is scheduled for next spring.