🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy plans a personal account in the coming weeks called Notes from a Cell, which recounts the period spent behind bars.

The revelation was made just 11 days after the former president left prison as he contests his conviction related to criminal conspiracy regarding a scheme to secure presidential race money provided by the government of the late Libyan dictator.

Life Behind Bars: Solitary Musings

“Behind bars one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he writes in a preview, suggesting the account will focus on his thoughts during seclusion rather than extensive analysis on the packed and troubled jail system in France.

“Silence escapes me, not present at the prison, where one hears constant sound,” he adds. “The din persists relentlessly. However, akin to empty spaces, personal reflection is fortified behind bars.”

Release Hearing: Sharing the Struggle

While appealing for release, he had appeared via screen from his cell, characterizing his incarceration as exhausting. He stated to the judge: “I must acknowledge the correctional officers, who are exceptionally humane, easing this ordeal tolerable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I would end up incarcerated. It’s an ordeal forced upon me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It has an impact all who experience it due to its intensity.”

Historical Context

He, who led the nation between 2007 and 2012, became the inaugural past president of an EU country and the first postwar leader of France to serve time in prison.

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

Cell Library

It is not certain if he found the opportunity to go through the volumes he had in his cell: a two-volume biography of Jesus together with Dumas’s work the famous story, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual ends up incarcerated then breaks out to seek vengeance.

Prison Conditions

He was held in isolation for his own security in a room of about nine sq metres including private facilities at the correctional facility in Paris. Guards stayed in an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned that he consumed just yogurt while inside due to concerns any food could have been tampered with. He had facilities to cook for himself but refused this, according to reports. Not known is if the memoir includes what he ate in prison.

Lawyer’s Statements

Sarkozy’s lawyer, who saw him regularly every day during the incarceration, informed the court security would be better outside jail compared to inside. “There were death threats, has heard screaming at night and the urgent intervention next door as a detainee harmed themselves.”

Case Background

He entered custody last month when a Paris court sentenced him to a half-decade term for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to secure political donations for his presidential bid.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and another court case planned for next spring.