The Former French President to Pen Prison Memoir Chronicling His 20 Days Incarcerated
Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a personal account in the coming weeks named A Prisoner’s Diary, which recounts his experience endured in jail.
The revelation was made less than two weeks following the former president gained freedom as he contests the guilty verdict related to criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to secure political financing provided by the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.
Life Behind Bars: Inner Thoughts
“In prison there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he writes in a preview, suggesting the book centers around his musings during isolation instead of wider commentary of the strained and struggling French prison system.
“Quiet is absent, which is missing in La Santé, where one hears endless commotion,” he adds. “The din unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, inner life is strengthened while incarcerated.”
Freedom Plea: Sharing the Struggle
At his release request hearing, Sarkozy had appeared by video link from his cell, depicting prison life as gruelling. He expressed in court: “I wish to commend to all the prison staff, displaying remarkable compassion, and who helped make this difficult experience tolerable – as it truly is one.”
“I didn’t expect at this stage of life, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a hardship I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It affects one all who experience it as it’s exhausting.”
First of Its Kind
Sarkozy, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, was the first former head from the EU and the first leader since WWII from France to be incarcerated.
Before entering jail he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity for authoring a memoir.
Reading Material
Unconfirmed is did he manage to review and analyze the three books he took into prison: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a blameless person ends up incarcerated but escapes to seek vengeance.
Daily Reality
Sarkozy was held secluded due to safety concerns in a room approximately nine square meters featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison located in the capital. Security personnel occupied the next cell.
Sources mentioned his diet consisted only yoghurts in prison worried that meals provided may have been contaminated. He had facilities to cook for himself but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if he will detail what he ate in prison.
Legal Perspective
Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client every day while he was in prison, stated during proceedings security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “There were death threats, listened to yells during nighttime plus rapid actions in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”
Charges and Sentence
His incarceration began in late October following the judiciary imposed a five-year sentence on conspiracy charges over a scheme to secure political donations for his 2007 presidential race.
He maintains his innocence and is contesting the ruling, with a new trial planned for early next year.
