The ex-president of France plans a personal account this autumn titled Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his time served behind bars.
The revelation emerged less than two weeks following the former president was released as he appeals his conviction on charges of illegal collaboration regarding a scheme to acquire presidential race money from the government of former Libyan leader.
“Behind bars one sees little, and nothing to do,” he reflects in one passage, implying the book will focus on his musings during isolation as opposed to a broader observation of the overcrowded and troubled jail system in France.
“I forget silence, not present at the prison, where noise is a lot to hear,” he states. “The din is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, personal reflection is fortified in prison.”
While appealing for release, he participated remotely from inside the facility, depicting prison life as draining. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare manageable – because it is a nightmare.”
“I didn’t expect that at 70 years of age, I’d be in prison. It’s a trial I must endure. It’s challenging, I acknowledge, extremely tough. It affects one on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”
The former president, who led the nation between 2007 and 2012, set a precedent as ex-leader in the European Union and the first leader since WWII from France to be incarcerated.
Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity to compose an account.
It is not certain whether he had time to read and critique the three books he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts and Alexandre Dumas’s novel The Count of Monte Cristo, where an innocent man is sentenced to jail later flees to seek vengeance.
Sarkozy remained in solitary confinement to protect him in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in Paris. Guards stayed 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 to cook for himself yet he declined, according to reports. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.
His attorney, Christophe Ingrain every day while he was in prison, stated during proceedings he would be safer released than inside. “He received menacing messages, heard shouts at night and the urgent intervention in a neighbouring cell during an inmate’s self-injury.”
He entered custody in late October after a French court sentenced him to a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to acquire campaign funds for his presidential bid.
He disputes the charges challenging the decision, and another court case is scheduled for the coming spring.
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