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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a personal account in the coming weeks titled Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his experience spent behind bars.

The revelation came shortly following the former president left prison while he appeals the guilty verdict on charges of illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to obtain presidential race money provided by the leadership of former Libyan leader.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“In prison there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he notes in a preview, indicating the book is more about his reflections while in solitary confinement rather than wider commentary on the packed and troubled French prison system.

“Quiet is absent, not present in that facility, where one hears a lot to hear,” he states. “The din is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, inner life is strengthened while incarcerated.”

Release Hearing: Recounting the Hardship

At his release request hearing, the former leader participated by video link from a room in prison, describing his time inside as draining. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this difficult experience manageable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind at this stage of life, I would end up incarcerated. It’s a hardship I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It affects one every inmate because it’s gruelling.”

Historical Context

Sarkozy, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, was the first past president in the European Union and the initial post-WWII figure of France to be incarcerated.

Before entering jail he mentioned he intended to spend the period to compose an account.

Cell Library

It remains unclear whether he had time to review and analyze the texts he took into prison: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail then breaks out to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

He was placed secluded due to safety concerns in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail in Paris. Security personnel occupied a neighbouring cell.

Reports indicated that he consumed only yoghurts in prison due to concerns meals provided may have been contaminated. Options were available for self-catering yet he declined, as per accounts. Not known is if the memoir includes his dietary choices.

Defense Viewpoint

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client daily throughout the jail term, informed the court security would be better out of prison than inside. “He has faced death threats, has heard screaming during nighttime plus rapid actions in an adjacent room during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison in late October following a French court imposed a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy related to a plan to obtain campaign funds during his election campaign.

He maintains his innocence and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial set for early next year.