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The ex-president of France will soon publish a memoir in the coming weeks called Diary of a Prisoner, chronicling the period spent in custody.

This news emerged just 11 days after the ex-leader was released while his appeal proceeds his conviction on charges of criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to obtain political financing provided by the regime of former Libyan leader.

Prison Experience: Solitary Musings

“In prison one sees little, and nothing to do,” he reflects in one passage, indicating the memoir is more about his reflections while in isolation instead of extensive analysis regarding the strained and crisis-hit French prison system.

“Quiet is absent, which doesn’t exist at the prison, where noise is a lot to hear,” he states. “The din persists relentlessly. Yet, similar to barren lands, one’s inner world is fortified while incarcerated.”

Court Appearance: Describing the Ordeal

While appealing for release, the former leader participated via screen from a room in prison, depicting prison life as exhausting. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, who are exceptionally humane, and who helped make this ordeal tolerable – as it truly is one.”

“I didn’t expect that at 70 years of age, I would end up incarcerated. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. I confess it’s hard, it’s very hard. It has an impact all who experience it as it’s exhausting.”

Historical Context

He, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, 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 intended to spend the period for authoring a memoir.

Books in Prison

It remains unclear if he found the opportunity to go through the texts he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work the famous story, in which a blameless person ends up incarcerated later flees to take revenge.

Daily Reality

He was held in isolation due to safety concerns in a space of about nine sq metres featuring a personal bathroom at the correctional facility in the city. Two bodyguards were stationed in a neighbouring cell.

Sources mentioned that he had eaten just yogurt during his stay because he feared prison cuisine may have been contaminated. Although he had access to prepare his own meals but he turned this down, as per accounts. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about what he ate in prison.

Legal Perspective

His attorney, who visited his client each day during the incarceration, told the release hearing he would be safer released rather than in custody. “There were menacing messages, has heard screaming at night and the urgent intervention next door when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Charges and Sentence

Sarkozy went to prison on 21 October following the judiciary imposed five years in prison on conspiracy charges in connection with efforts to secure election financing for his 2007 presidential race.

He denies wrongdoing and is contesting the ruling, and a fresh trial set for the coming spring.