🔗 Share this article

Nicolas Sarkozy will soon publish a book next month called Notes from a Cell, chronicling the period endured behind bars.

The announcement came just 11 days after the ex-leader gained freedom while his appeal proceeds his conviction for unlawful coordination regarding a scheme to acquire election campaign funds linked to the regime of the late Libyan dictator.

Time in Custody: Personal Reflections

“Behind bars one sees little, with little to occupy time,” he reflects in one passage, implying the memoir centers around his thoughts from seclusion as opposed to a broader observation on the strained and struggling jail system in France.

“I forget silence, which is missing in that facility, where one hears endless commotion,” he states. “The racket persists relentlessly. Yet, similar to barren lands, personal reflection is fortified behind bars.”

Release Hearing: Sharing the Struggle

At his release request hearing, he was present by video link from his cell, describing his time inside as draining. He had told the court: “I wish to commend those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who have made this difficult experience manageable – since it’s deeply troubling.”

“I didn’t expect that in my seventies, I’d be in prison. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It has an impact on any prisoner because it’s gruelling.”

Historical Context

The former president, the ex-head of state between 2007 and 2012, was the first former head of an EU country and the initial post-WWII figure in the French Republic to serve time in prison.

Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity for authoring a memoir.

Cell Library

It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to go through the texts he took into prison: a biography of Jesus in two parts plus the novel by Dumas the classic tale, where a wrongfully accused individual ends up incarcerated but escapes to take revenge.

Life in Confinement

The former leader was held in solitary confinement for his own security in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in the city. Guards occupied an adjacent room.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten only yoghurts in prison worried that any food might have been spat on. Options were available to cook for himself but refused this, as per accounts. Unclear remains whether Sarkozy will write about his dietary choices.

Lawyer’s Statements

Sarkozy’s lawyer, Christophe Ingrain every day while he was in prison, informed the court security would be better out of prison compared to inside. “There were menacing messages, heard shouts during nighttime and the urgent intervention in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

He entered custody in late October after the judiciary imposed a half-decade term for illegal collaboration related to a plan to acquire campaign funds for his 2007 presidential race.

He denies wrongdoing and has appealed against the verdict, with a new trial planned for next spring.