The Former French President Preparing to Release Jail Diary Chronicling Two Dozen Days Behind Bars

The ex-president of France is preparing a personal account next month called Diary of a Prisoner, which recounts his experience endured in custody.

The revelation came shortly after the ex-leader left prison while he appeals the guilty verdict on charges of illegal collaboration in a case to secure political financing from the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts

“In prison there is nothing to see, and nothing to do,” he writes in a preview, indicating the book will focus on his reflections from seclusion as opposed to extensive analysis on the packed and troubled jail system in France.

“Quiet is absent, which is missing at the prison, where one hears a lot to hear,” he continues. “The noise persists relentlessly. However, akin to empty spaces, inner life is fortified while incarcerated.”

Freedom Plea: Describing the Ordeal

During his plea for freedom, Sarkozy had appeared by video link from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He expressed in court: “I wish to commend the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this difficult experience manageable – because it is a nightmare.”

“I didn’t expect that in my seventies, I would end up incarcerated. It’s a hardship that has been imposed on me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It leaves a mark all who experience it due to its intensity.”

First of Its Kind

The former president, who led the nation between 2007 and 2012, set a precedent as ex-leader from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure from France to experience jail.

Before entering jail he declared he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Books in Prison

It is not certain if he found the opportunity to review and analyze 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, where an innocent man ends up incarcerated later flees to exact retribution.

Daily Reality

Sarkozy was placed secluded for his own security in a room approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison in Paris. Guards stayed in the next cell.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten just yogurt while inside worried that meals provided might have been spat on. He had facilities for self-catering yet he declined, according to reports. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.

Legal Perspective

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who saw him regularly every day during the incarceration, told the release hearing he would be safer out of prison rather than in custody. “He received threats against his life, listened to yells at night plus rapid actions next door during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Case Background

His incarceration began on 21 October following a French court imposed a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy related to a plan to secure campaign funds for his presidential bid.

He disputes the charges challenging the decision, and another court case planned for the coming spring.