🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a memoir next month called Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling the period served in custody.

The revelation emerged just 11 days following Sarkozy left prison while his appeal proceeds the court ruling related to illegal collaboration in a case to secure election campaign funds from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Time in Custody: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars visibility is limited, and activities are scarce,” he reflects in one passage, implying the memoir centers around his musings during solitary confinement rather than a broader observation on the overcrowded and struggling French prison system.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where noise is endless commotion,” he continues. “The racket unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life is strengthened in prison.”

Freedom Plea: Sharing the Struggle

At his release request hearing, Sarkozy had appeared via screen from his cell, depicting prison life as exhausting. He had told the court: “I must acknowledge the correctional officers, showing great humanity, and who have made this difficult experience bearable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It has an impact every inmate due to its intensity.”

Historical Context

Sarkozy, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural former head in the European Union and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to serve time in prison.

Ahead of his incarceration he declared he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

Unconfirmed is did he manage to go through the volumes he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the classic tale, where an innocent man ends up incarcerated later flees to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

Sarkozy remained in isolation for his own security in a cell approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison in Paris. Security personnel were stationed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted solely dairy snacks during his stay because he feared prison cuisine could have been tampered with. Options were available to cook for himself but refused this, according to reports. Unclear remains if he will detail his dietary choices.

Defense Viewpoint

The legal representative, Christophe Ingrain each day while he was in prison, told the release hearing security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He received death threats, listened to yells at night and the urgent intervention next door during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison last month after a French court gave him five years in prison for criminal conspiracy related to a plan to obtain political donations for his 2007 presidential race.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and another court case planned for next spring.