Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a memoir this autumn titled Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his experience endured in jail.
This news emerged less than two weeks following Sarkozy left prison while his appeal proceeds the guilty verdict for criminal conspiracy in a case to obtain election campaign funds from the regime of former Libyan leader.
“Behind bars visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he writes in a preview, indicating the memoir is more about his musings during isolation instead of wider commentary regarding the strained and crisis-hit jail system in France.
“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist at the prison, where there is constant sound,” he adds. “The noise unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, personal reflection is strengthened behind bars.”
While appealing for release, Sarkozy participated remotely from his cell, describing his time inside as gruelling. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute the correctional officers, showing great humanity, and who have made this difficult experience tolerable – since it’s deeply troubling.”
“I never imagined that at 70 years of age, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a trial that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s difficult, extremely tough. It affects one on any prisoner as it’s exhausting.”
He, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, was the first past president in the European Union and the first postwar leader of France to experience jail.
Before entering jail he declared he planned to utilize the opportunity for authoring a memoir.
Unconfirmed is did he manage to read and critique the volumes he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books and Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, in which an innocent man is imprisoned but escapes to exact retribution.
The former leader was placed in solitary confinement for his own security in a cell roughly 100 square feet with his own shower and toilet in the Paris jail in Paris. Guards stayed in a neighbouring cell.
It was stated his diet consisted only yoghurts while inside worried that meals provided might have been spat on. He had facilities to cook for himself yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if he will detail his dietary choices.
Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client each day while he was in prison, told the release hearing security would be better outside jail compared to inside. “He received menacing messages, heard shouts during nighttime plus rapid actions next door when a prisoner self-harmed.”
His incarceration began on 21 October when a Paris court imposed five years in prison on conspiracy charges over a scheme to secure political donations for his presidential bid.
He denies wrongdoing challenging the decision, with a new trial is scheduled for early next year.
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