The Former French President to Pen Jail Diary Documenting Three Weeks In Custody

The ex-president of France is preparing a book this autumn named A Prisoner’s Diary, detailing his time spent behind bars.

The announcement was made less than two weeks following Sarkozy left prison as his appeal proceeds the guilty verdict on charges of criminal conspiracy in a case to secure political financing linked to the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.

Prison Experience: Personal Reflections

“Inside jail visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he writes in an extract, indicating the account is more about his thoughts from isolation as opposed to extensive analysis of the strained and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“Silence escapes me, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where noise is endless commotion,” he adds. “The racket unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, inner life grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Release Hearing: Recounting the Hardship

At his release request hearing, the former leader had appeared via screen from a room in prison, describing his time inside as draining. He had told the court: “I must acknowledge to all the prison staff, showing great humanity, easing this nightmare manageable – because it is a nightmare.”

“I never imagined that in my seventies, I would end up incarcerated. It’s an ordeal forced upon me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, it’s very hard. It has an impact all who experience it because it’s gruelling.”

Unprecedented Situation

He, who served as France’s president between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural past president from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure of France to experience jail.

Ahead of his incarceration he declared he planned to utilize the opportunity to compose an account.

Books in Prison

Unconfirmed is did he manage to go through the texts he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, where a blameless person is sentenced to jail but escapes to exact retribution.

Life in Confinement

Sarkozy remained in solitary confinement for his own security in a cell of about nine sq metres including private facilities at La Santé prison in Paris. Security personnel stayed in a neighbouring cell.

Reports indicated that he consumed just yogurt in prison worried that any food might have been spat on. Options were available to cook for himself but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about meals during incarceration.

Defense Viewpoint

The legal representative, who saw him regularly daily while he was in prison, stated during proceedings security would be better released compared to inside. “There were threats against his life, heard shouts after dark plus rapid actions in an adjacent room as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Legal Proceedings

He entered custody on 21 October following a Paris court sentenced him to a five-year sentence for illegal collaboration in connection with efforts to obtain campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He maintains his innocence and is contesting the ruling, with a new trial planned for the coming spring.