The Former French President Set to Write Prison Memoir Documenting Three Weeks In Custody

The ex-president of France is preparing a memoir this autumn titled Diary of a Prisoner, which recounts his time endured behind bars.

The announcement was made less than two weeks following the former president left prison while he appeals the guilty verdict for unlawful coordination in a case to secure political financing provided by the leadership of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“In prison one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he notes in a preview, implying the account centers around his reflections from solitary confinement instead of a broader observation of the overcrowded and troubled jail system in France.

“Quiet is absent, which is missing in that facility, where there is a lot to hear,” he adds. “The racket unfortunately never stops. However, akin to empty spaces, one’s inner world is fortified behind bars.”

Freedom Plea: Recounting the Hardship

During his plea for freedom, he participated remotely from a room in prison, depicting prison life as exhausting. He expressed in court: “I must acknowledge those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this ordeal manageable – as it truly is one.”

“It never crossed my mind at this stage of life, I’d find myself behind bars. It’s a hardship that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s difficult, it’s very hard. It has an impact all who experience it due to its intensity.”

First of Its Kind

The former president, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, was the first former head from the EU and the initial post-WWII figure from France to experience jail.

Ahead of his incarceration he mentioned he intended to spend the period to compose an account.

Cell Library

It remains unclear whether he had time to go through the volumes he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus plus the novel by Dumas the famous story, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is sentenced to jail later flees to exact retribution.

Life in Confinement

The former leader remained in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a space approximately nine square meters featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison in Paris. Two bodyguards were stationed in an adjacent room.

Reports indicated that he consumed just yogurt in prison due to concerns prison cuisine may have been contaminated. He had facilities to prepare his own meals but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Unclear remains if the memoir includes his dietary choices.

Legal Perspective

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who saw him regularly daily during the incarceration, told the release hearing security would be better out of prison than inside. “There were menacing messages, listened to yells after dark and the urgent intervention next door as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Legal Proceedings

His incarceration began on 21 October after a French court gave him five years in prison on conspiracy charges over a scheme to obtain election financing during his election campaign.

He maintains his innocence and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial planned for next spring.