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Nicolas Sarkozy will soon publish a memoir this autumn called A Prisoner’s Diary, detailing his time spent in jail.

This news came just 11 days after Sarkozy was released while he contests the guilty verdict related to criminal conspiracy regarding a scheme to obtain election campaign funds from the government of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“Inside jail there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he writes in one passage, indicating the book centers around his reflections from isolation instead of wider commentary on the strained and crisis-hit correctional facilities in the country.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where noise is a lot to hear,” he adds. “The noise is alas constant. But, just like the desert, inner life grows stronger while incarcerated.”

Freedom Plea: Sharing the Struggle

While appealing for release, he was present remotely from inside the facility, characterizing his incarceration as draining. He had told the court: “I must acknowledge to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this ordeal tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal forced upon me. I admit it’s difficult, it’s very hard. It affects one on any prisoner as it’s exhausting.”

Unprecedented Situation

The former president, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, set a precedent as past president of an EU country and the initial post-WWII figure of France to be incarcerated.

Ahead of his incarceration he declared he would use his time to compose an account.

Cell Library

It is not certain did he manage to go through the three books he took into prison: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the famous story, in which an innocent man ends up incarcerated but escapes to exact retribution.

Daily Reality

The former leader remained in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a cell of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison in the city. Security personnel stayed in a neighbouring cell.

It was stated that he had eaten solely dairy snacks in prison because he feared meals provided could have been tampered with. Options were available to prepare his own meals yet he declined, as per accounts. Unclear remains if the memoir includes his dietary choices.

Legal Perspective

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain daily while he was in prison, informed the court his safety would improve released than inside. “He received menacing messages, listened to yells during nighttime and emergency responses in a neighbouring cell during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Case Background

Sarkozy went to prison on 21 October when a Paris court imposed a half-decade term on conspiracy charges related to a plan to acquire campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.

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