Nicolas Sarkozy is preparing a memoir this autumn named Notes from a Cell, which recounts his time spent in jail.
The announcement emerged just 11 days following the former president gained freedom as his appeal proceeds the court ruling related to criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to acquire election campaign funds provided by the leadership of former Libyan leader.
“In prison one sees little, with little to occupy time,” he writes in one passage, suggesting the account will focus on his thoughts during seclusion rather than a broader observation regarding the overcrowded and struggling French prison system.
“Silence escapes me, which doesn’t exist in that facility, where there is a lot to hear,” he states. “The racket unfortunately never stops. Yet, similar to barren lands, personal reflection is strengthened in prison.”
At his release request hearing, the former leader had appeared via screen from his cell, describing his time inside as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this ordeal tolerable – because it is a nightmare.”
“I never imagined at this stage of life, I’d be in prison. It’s a trial I must endure. I admit it’s difficult, deeply straining. It affects one every inmate due to its intensity.”
He, who led the nation from 2007 to 2012, was the first past president of an EU country and the first leader since WWII in the French Republic to be incarcerated.
Ahead of his incarceration he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity to write a book.
It is not certain did he manage to go through the three books he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books and Alexandre Dumas’s novel the classic tale, in which a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned then breaks out to exact retribution.
The former leader remained in isolation to protect him in a cell roughly 100 square feet featuring a personal bathroom at La Santé prison located in the capital. Guards were stationed in an adjacent room.
Sources mentioned his diet consisted just yogurt in prison due to concerns any food may have been contaminated. Options were available to cook for himself but he turned this down, based on unnamed sources. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about meals during incarceration.
His attorney, who saw him regularly each day throughout the jail term, informed the court security would be better out of prison rather than in custody. “He has faced menacing messages, heard shouts during nighttime and the urgent intervention next door when a prisoner self-harmed.”
He entered custody in late October when the judiciary sentenced him to a five-year sentence for illegal collaboration related to a plan to obtain political donations for his 2007 presidential race.
He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial set for the coming spring.
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