🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy plans a book this autumn titled Diary of a Prisoner, which recounts his experience spent in custody.

This news was made less than two weeks following the former president left prison while his appeal proceeds the guilty verdict for criminal conspiracy regarding a scheme to secure political financing provided by the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.

Time in Custody: Inner Thoughts

“Behind bars visibility is limited, and nothing to do,” he writes in an extract, suggesting the book will focus on his reflections during solitary confinement as opposed to extensive analysis regarding the strained and struggling jail system in France.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist in La Santé, where one hears endless commotion,” he states. “The noise unfortunately never stops. However, akin to empty spaces, inner life grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Describing the Ordeal

During his plea for freedom, he was present remotely from his cell, depicting prison life as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I wish to commend to all the prison staff, showing great humanity, easing this nightmare bearable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s a trial that has been imposed on me. I confess it’s hard, extremely tough. It affects one on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

First of Its Kind

Sarkozy, who served as France’s president between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural past president of an EU country and the first postwar leader in the French Republic to be incarcerated.

Before entering jail he declared he would use his time to compose an account.

Books in Prison

It is not certain did he manage to review and analyze the texts he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, where a blameless person is sentenced to jail then breaks out to take revenge.

Daily Reality

He remained in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a room approximately nine square meters including private facilities at La Santé prison in the city. Guards were stationed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted just yogurt while inside because he feared prison cuisine could have been tampered with. He had facilities to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about his dietary choices.

Defense Viewpoint

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client daily while he was in prison, told the release hearing he would be safer outside jail compared to inside. “He received menacing messages, has heard screaming during nighttime and the urgent intervention in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Legal Proceedings

Sarkozy went to prison in late October after a French court imposed a five-year sentence on conspiracy charges related to a plan to obtain campaign funds for his presidential bid.

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