The Former French President Set to Write Jail Diary Chronicling His 20 Days Behind Bars

The ex-president of France is preparing a memoir next month called Diary of a Prisoner, detailing the period served in custody.

This news came just 11 days after Sarkozy left prison as he contests the court ruling on charges of unlawful coordination connected to efforts to acquire presidential race money linked to the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi.

Life Behind Bars: Personal Reflections

“Behind bars visibility is limited, and nothing to do,” he writes in a preview, suggesting the memoir centers around his thoughts from seclusion rather than wider commentary of the strained and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“Silence escapes me, not present in La Santé, where noise is constant sound,” he continues. “The noise unfortunately never stops. However, akin to empty spaces, one’s inner world is fortified in prison.”

Freedom Plea: Recounting the Hardship

At his release request hearing, Sarkozy had appeared by video link from a room in prison, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I must acknowledge the correctional officers, displaying remarkable compassion, easing this nightmare manageable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“I didn’t expect at this stage of life, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a trial I must endure. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It leaves a mark all who experience it because it’s gruelling.”

Unprecedented Situation

The former president, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, was the first former head from the EU and the first postwar leader in the French Republic to experience jail.

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

Reading Material

It is not certain whether he had time to read and critique the volumes he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual ends up incarcerated but escapes to exact retribution.

Life in Confinement

The former leader was placed in isolation to protect him in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in the city. Guards occupied a neighbouring cell.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted solely dairy snacks in prison worried that any food might have been spat on. Options were available to prepare his own meals yet he declined, according to reports. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.

Defense Viewpoint

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, informed the court security would be better out of prison rather than in custody. “There were threats against his life, has heard screaming during nighttime and the urgent intervention next door as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Charges and Sentence

He entered custody last month after a Paris court gave him a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy in connection with efforts to obtain political donations for his presidential bid.

He maintains his innocence and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial planned for next spring.