The Former French President Set to Write Prison Memoir Documenting Three Weeks Behind Bars
Nicolas Sarkozy plans a memoir next month named A Prisoner’s Diary, chronicling the period spent in custody.
This news emerged less than two weeks after the former president left prison while his appeal proceeds the court ruling on charges of unlawful coordination in a case to obtain political financing provided by the government of the late Libyan dictator.
Life Behind Bars: Inner Thoughts
“Inside jail one sees little, with little to occupy time,” he writes in an extract, implying the account will focus on his musings during seclusion as opposed to a broader observation regarding the overcrowded and troubled jail system in France.
“I forget silence, not present in that facility, where noise is constant sound,” he adds. “The din unfortunately never stops. However, akin to empty spaces, inner life is fortified while incarcerated.”
Court Appearance: Describing the Ordeal
While appealing for release, Sarkozy was present remotely from a room in prison, describing his time inside as draining. He had told the court: “I wish to commend to all the prison staff, displaying remarkable compassion, easing this nightmare bearable – as it truly is one.”
“I never imagined that at 70 years of age, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It leaves a mark on any prisoner due to its intensity.”
Historical Context
He, who led the nation for a five-year term, became the inaugural past president of an EU country and the first postwar leader in the French Republic to experience jail.
Before entering jail he declared he would use his time for authoring a memoir.
Cell Library
It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to review and analyze the texts he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the famous story, where a blameless person is imprisoned but escapes to exact retribution.
Daily Reality
He was held in solitary confinement to protect him in a space approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison in the city. Security personnel occupied an adjacent room.
Reports indicated that he had eaten just yogurt during his stay worried that any food might have been spat on. Although he had access for self-catering but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.
Legal Perspective
The legal representative, who saw him regularly every day while he was in prison, informed the court security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He has faced death threats, has heard screaming at night and emergency responses in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”
Charges and Sentence
His incarceration began in late October following the judiciary sentenced him to five years in prison on conspiracy charges related to a plan to obtain election financing for his 2007 presidential race.
He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and another court case planned for the coming spring.
