🔗 Share this article Nicolas Sarkozy Preparing to Release Jail Diary Detailing His 20 Days In Custody The ex-president of France is preparing a personal account next month called Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling his experience served in jail. The announcement was made shortly after the former president was released as he appeals his conviction for criminal conspiracy regarding a scheme to secure presidential race money from the government of former Libyan leader. Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts “Behind bars one sees little, and activities are scarce,” he writes in an extract, indicating the account centers around his reflections from solitary confinement as opposed to wider commentary of the packed and crisis-hit French prison system. “Silence escapes me, not present in La Santé, where one hears constant sound,” he continues. “The din is alas constant. Yet, similar to barren lands, one’s inner world grows stronger behind bars.” Freedom Plea: Describing the Ordeal While appealing for release, he had appeared by video link from his cell, depicting prison life as exhausting. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute to all the prison staff, displaying remarkable compassion, and who helped make this difficult experience manageable – because it is a nightmare.” “I never imagined that at 70 years of age, I would end up incarcerated. It’s a hardship that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s difficult, extremely tough. It has an impact on any prisoner due to its intensity.” Unprecedented Situation The former president, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, set a precedent as past president from the EU and the first leader since WWII of France to be incarcerated. Prior to imprisonment he mentioned he planned to utilize the opportunity to write a book. Cell Library Unconfirmed is did he manage to go through the texts he took into prison: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, in which an innocent man is imprisoned then breaks out to exact retribution. Prison Conditions He was held in solitary confinement for his own security in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom in the Paris jail in the city. Two bodyguards stayed in an adjacent room. Sources mentioned that he had eaten only yoghurts while inside worried that meals provided might have been spat on. Although he had access for self-catering but refused this, based on unnamed sources. Not known is if the memoir includes meals during incarceration. Legal Perspective Sarkozy’s lawyer, who visited his client daily while he was in prison, informed the court he would be safer released than inside. “He received death threats, has heard screaming at night plus rapid actions in a neighbouring cell when a prisoner self-harmed.” Charges and Sentence Sarkozy went to prison in late October when the judiciary imposed five years in prison for illegal collaboration over a scheme to acquire political donations for his presidential bid. He denies wrongdoing and has appealed against the verdict, and a fresh trial set for early next year.