The Former French President Set to Write Jail Diary Documenting Three Weeks Incarcerated
The ex-president of France plans a personal account in the coming weeks titled A Prisoner’s Diary, detailing his time endured behind bars.
The announcement came just 11 days following Sarkozy left prison as his appeal proceeds the court ruling on charges of illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to secure presidential race money provided by the leadership of the late Libyan dictator.
Prison Experience: Solitary Musings
“Behind bars visibility is limited, and activities are scarce,” he reflects in an extract, indicating the account centers around his musings during seclusion instead of wider commentary on the strained and crisis-hit French prison system.
“Quiet is absent, not present in that facility, where there is a lot to hear,” he adds. “The din unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, personal reflection is strengthened in prison.”
Release Hearing: Sharing the Struggle
While appealing for release, Sarkozy was present by video link from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, easing this difficult experience tolerable – since it’s deeply troubling.”
“I never imagined that at 70 years of age, I would end up incarcerated. It’s an ordeal I must endure. I confess it’s hard, deeply straining. It leaves a mark every inmate because it’s gruelling.”
Unprecedented Situation
The former president, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, was the first ex-leader from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure in the French Republic to be incarcerated.
Before entering jail he had said he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.
Reading Material
It remains unclear whether he had time to review and analyze the three books he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where an innocent man is imprisoned then breaks out to seek vengeance.
Life in Confinement
Sarkozy remained secluded to protect him in a cell of about nine sq metres with his own shower and toilet at the correctional facility located in the capital. Security personnel stayed in an adjacent room.
Sources mentioned his diet consisted solely dairy snacks during his stay worried that meals provided could have been tampered with. Although he had access to cook for himself yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.
Lawyer’s Statements
Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain every day throughout the jail term, told the release hearing he would be safer released than inside. “There were menacing messages, has heard screaming at night and emergency responses next door when a prisoner self-harmed.”
Case Background
His incarceration began last month following the judiciary gave him a half-decade term for illegal collaboration related to a plan to acquire campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.
He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, with a new trial is scheduled for the coming spring.
