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Ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy has stated that his time behind bars has been “gruelling” and an “ordeal” as he was present via video link at a judicial proceeding regarding his petition to serve his sentence at home.

Legal Proceeding from Prison

Sarkozy, dressed in a dark blue attire, was visible on screen from prison on Monday, seated at a table with his lawyers beside him. He told the court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this nightmare bearable – because it is a horrific experience.”

Context of the Legal Situation

The former president was admitted to the correctional facility in Paris on 21 October, after being handed a half-decade imprisonment for criminal conspiracy over a plan to obtain funds for his 2007 presidential election campaign from the government of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

He has challenged the verdict, but the court ruled that because of the “serious nature” of his guilty verdict, he had to go to prison while the appeals process proceeded.

Unprecedented Significance

Sarkozy, who served as France’s rightwing president between 2007 and 2012, is the first former head of an EU country to be imprisoned in prison, and the first French postwar leader to go behind bars.

Personal Statement

Sarkozy told the court from prison: “I never had any idea or desire to ask Mr Gaddafi for any kind of financing … I will not admit to something I didn’t do … I could not have foreseen that at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal that has been forced upon me. I confess it’s difficult, it’s extremely challenging. It leaves a mark on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

He stated he would not try to communicate with any defendants or testifiers in the case. He declared: “I’m French, I love my country, my family is in France. This ordeal has caused them pain a lot.”

Legal Team Observations

Sarkozy’s lawyer Jean-Michel Darrois, positioned beside him in the prison video link room, said: “Being in isolation has been extremely difficult for him.” He commented on Sarkozy: “He’s a strong, robust and brave man and this detention has been very painful for him.”

In court, a different legal representative, Christophe Ingrain, who had visited him every day, asserted Sarkozy would be safer out of prison than within. “He has faced death threats, has listened to shouts at night and the urgent intervention in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner self-harmed,” he said.

Present Situation

The public attorney Damien Brunet asked that Sarkozy’s petition for freedom be granted. The court will reveal its ruling on Monday afternoon.

Incarceration Details

The former president has been placed in isolation for his own safety, in an individual cell of about 9 sq metres, with his own shower and toilet. Security personnel are occupying a neighbouring cell to ensure his safety.

Accounts indicated that he had been eating only yoghurt in prison as he feared any food might have been contaminated. He had been offered the facilities to cook for himself but refused this.

Encouragement from the Public

His online presence last week shared a video of piles of letters, postcards and parcels it said had been sent to him, including a collection, a sweet treat and a volume. “No letter will go without a response,” his account declared. “The final chapter has not yet been written.”

Personal Belongings

Sarkozy brought with him a life story of Christ as well as The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas’s novel in which an wrongly accused individual is sentenced to jail but breaks out to seek retribution.

Court Case Particulars

During Sarkozy’s three-month trial, the public prosecutor had told the court that Sarkozy entered into a “corrupt agreement” of dishonesty with one of the worst rulers of the last 30 years.

Sarkozy denied wrongdoing and stated he had not been part of a illegal scheme to obtain campaign finances from Libya.

He was found not guilty of three separate charges of dishonesty, improper handling of state money and unlawful political financing. After the public attorney also challenged these not guilty verdicts, Sarkozy will be judged again on all the charges next year, including illegal collaboration.

Prior Legal Issues

Although the claims of a clandestine financial agreement with the North African government formed the most significant legal case Sarkozy had faced, he had already been found guilty in two different proceedings and stripped of France’s highest distinction, the Légion d’honneur.

Sarkozy had previously become the initial ex-leader forced to wear an electronic tag after being convicted in a different matter of corruption and influence peddling. In that case, he was given a one-year jail term but was able to complete it with an ankle monitor attached to his leg. He wore the tag for a quarter year before being granted conditional release.