🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a personal account next month titled Notes from a Cell, detailing his experience endured behind bars.

The revelation came shortly after the ex-leader gained freedom while he contests his conviction related to illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to acquire political financing linked to the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Life Behind Bars: Personal Reflections

“Inside jail visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he writes in a preview, implying the account will focus on his thoughts from solitary confinement as opposed to a broader observation regarding the packed and crisis-hit French prison system.

“I forget silence, which is missing in La Santé, where there is a lot to hear,” he continues. “The racket is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, one’s inner world grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Freedom Plea: Describing the Ordeal

At his release request hearing, he participated by video link from inside the facility, describing his time inside as gruelling. He had told the court: “I wish to commend to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this ordeal manageable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, deeply straining. It leaves a mark all who experience it as it’s exhausting.”

Unprecedented Situation

Sarkozy, who served as France’s president between 2007 and 2012, was the first past president of an EU country and the first leader since WWII of France to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he had said he intended to spend the period to write a book.

Books in Prison

Unconfirmed is if he found the opportunity to go through the three books he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts plus the novel by Dumas the classic tale, in which a blameless person is imprisoned later flees to take revenge.

Prison Conditions

Sarkozy was held in isolation for his own security in a room approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison in Paris. Two bodyguards were stationed in the next cell.

Reports indicated that he consumed only yoghurts while inside due to concerns any food may have been contaminated. He had facilities for self-catering yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. It is uncertain if he will detail meals during incarceration.

Defense Viewpoint

The legal representative, who saw him regularly daily while he was in prison, stated during proceedings he would be safer outside jail rather than in custody. “He received death threats, has heard screaming after dark plus rapid actions in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Case Background

Sarkozy went to prison on 21 October following the judiciary imposed a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy in connection with efforts to acquire political donations during his election campaign.

He disputes the charges and is contesting the ruling, and another court case set for the coming spring.