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Nicolas Sarkozy plans a memoir next month named Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling the period endured in jail.

This news emerged just 11 days following Sarkozy left prison as his appeal proceeds the court ruling on charges of unlawful coordination in a case to secure election campaign funds linked to the government of the late Libyan dictator.

Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts

“In prison visibility is limited, with little to occupy time,” he writes in one passage, suggesting the account centers around his thoughts during isolation instead of wider commentary of the packed and troubled jail system in France.

“I forget silence, which doesn’t exist at the prison, where one hears a lot to hear,” he continues. “The din is alas constant. However, akin to empty spaces, one’s inner world is strengthened in prison.”

Release Hearing: Describing the Ordeal

At his release request hearing, Sarkozy participated remotely from a room in prison, describing his time inside as exhausting. He expressed in court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, who are exceptionally humane, easing this difficult experience bearable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind that in my seventies, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a hardship I must endure. I admit it’s difficult, extremely tough. It affects one every inmate because it’s gruelling.”

First of Its Kind

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 first leader since WWII of France to be incarcerated.

Prior to imprisonment he declared he would use his time to write a book.

Reading Material

It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to review and analyze the three books he had in his cell: a biography of Jesus in two parts together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a blameless person ends up incarcerated but escapes to take revenge.

Life in Confinement

He was held secluded for his own security in a space approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at La Santé prison located in the capital. Guards stayed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned his diet consisted solely dairy snacks in prison due to concerns meals provided could have been tampered with. Options were available to cook for himself yet he declined, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains if the memoir includes meals during incarceration.

Defense Viewpoint

His attorney, who visited his client daily throughout the jail term, informed the court security would be better released than inside. “He has faced death threats, heard shouts after dark plus rapid actions in a neighbouring cell during an inmate’s self-injury.”

Charges and Sentence

He entered custody in late October following the judiciary imposed a half-decade term for illegal collaboration related to a plan to secure election financing during his election campaign.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial planned for early next year.