The Former French President to Pen Prison Memoir Documenting His 20 Days Behind Bars
Nicolas Sarkozy will soon publish a personal account this autumn called Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his time served in jail.
The announcement emerged just 11 days after the former president was released as his appeal proceeds the guilty verdict related to criminal conspiracy regarding a scheme to acquire presidential race money provided by the regime of former Libyan leader.
Life Behind Bars: Solitary Musings
“Inside jail one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he notes in an extract, indicating the account is more about his reflections during solitary confinement instead of a broader observation of the overcrowded and struggling correctional facilities in the country.
“Silence escapes me, which doesn’t exist in La Santé, where noise is endless commotion,” he adds. “The racket unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, inner life is fortified while incarcerated.”
Release Hearing: Sharing the Struggle
During his plea for freedom, he was present remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, showing great humanity, and who helped make this ordeal tolerable – because it is a nightmare.”
“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 all who experience it due to its intensity.”
Unprecedented Situation
He, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, set a precedent as ex-leader from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure from France to be incarcerated.
Ahead of his incarceration he had said he would use his time for authoring a memoir.
Cell Library
It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to go through the three books he had in his cell: a biography of Jesus in two parts plus the novel by Dumas The Count of Monte Cristo, in which a blameless person is sentenced to jail but escapes to take revenge.
Prison Conditions
The former leader remained in solitary confinement for his own security in a room roughly 100 square feet featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison in the city. Security personnel occupied an adjacent room.
Sources mentioned his diet consisted just yogurt in prison worried that prison cuisine may have been contaminated. He had facilities to cook for himself but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if he will detail what he ate in prison.
Legal Perspective
His attorney, who saw him regularly each day during the incarceration, stated during proceedings security would be better out of prison compared to inside. “He received death threats, listened to yells at night and emergency responses next door as a detainee harmed themselves.”
Case Background
His incarceration began last month after a French court imposed five years in prison on conspiracy charges related to a plan to obtain election financing during his election campaign.
He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial set for next spring.
