The Former French President to Pen Prison Memoir Detailing Three Weeks Incarcerated
The ex-president of France plans a memoir in the coming weeks called Notes from a Cell, chronicling his time served in jail.
The revelation was made shortly after Sarkozy was released as he contests the guilty verdict for unlawful coordination regarding a scheme to obtain presidential race money linked to the regime of former Libyan leader.
Life Behind Bars: Inner Thoughts
“Behind bars one sees little, and nothing to do,” he writes in a preview, suggesting the account is more about his thoughts during solitary confinement rather than a broader observation of the strained and troubled French prison system.
“Quiet is absent, not present in La Santé, where noise is a lot to hear,” he adds. “The noise unfortunately never stops. But, just like the desert, one’s inner world grows stronger while incarcerated.”
Court Appearance: Recounting the Hardship
At his release request hearing, he participated remotely from a room in prison, depicting prison life as gruelling. He stated to the judge: “I want to pay tribute the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this ordeal tolerable – because it is a nightmare.”
“I didn’t expect that in my seventies, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a hardship I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It affects one every inmate because it’s gruelling.”
Historical Context
Sarkozy, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural ex-leader of an EU country and the first postwar leader from France to experience jail.
Prior to imprisonment he declared he intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.
Reading Material
Unconfirmed is if he found the opportunity to read and critique the three books he brought with him: a two-volume biography of Jesus and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the famous story, in which an innocent man is sentenced to jail later flees to exact retribution.
Prison Conditions
Sarkozy was held in solitary confinement for his own security in a room of about nine sq metres with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison located in the capital. Security personnel stayed in an adjacent room.
Reports indicated his diet consisted only yoghurts during his stay because he feared prison cuisine could have been tampered with. He had facilities to cook for himself but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if he will detail meals during incarceration.
Legal Perspective
Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, stated during proceedings his safety would improve out of prison compared to inside. “He received menacing messages, listened to yells at night and the urgent intervention next door during an inmate’s self-injury.”
Case Background
Sarkozy went to prison last month when a Paris court gave him a five-year sentence on conspiracy charges in connection with efforts to acquire campaign funds for his presidential bid.
He maintains his innocence and has appealed against the verdict, and another court case planned for the coming spring.
