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The ex-president of France will soon publish a book this autumn named A Prisoner’s Diary, detailing his time endured in jail.

The announcement was made less than two weeks after the former president gained freedom as his appeal proceeds his conviction for criminal conspiracy connected to efforts to obtain political financing linked to the regime of Muammar Gaddafi.

Prison Experience: Inner Thoughts

“Behind bars there is nothing to see, and activities are scarce,” he notes in an extract, indicating the book is more about his musings from solitary confinement rather than extensive analysis regarding the strained and crisis-hit jail system in France.

“I forget silence, which is missing in La Santé, where one hears endless commotion,” he adds. “The racket is alas constant. However, akin to empty spaces, one’s inner world is strengthened behind bars.”

Court Appearance: Describing the Ordeal

At his release request hearing, the former leader participated by video link from his cell, characterizing his incarceration as gruelling. He had told the court: “I want to pay tribute those working in the jail, showing great humanity, and who helped make this difficult experience bearable – because it is a nightmare.”

“It never crossed my mind that at 70 years of age, I would end up incarcerated. It’s an ordeal that has been imposed on me. I admit it’s difficult, deeply straining. It affects one every inmate due to its intensity.”

First of Its Kind

He, who served as France’s president for a five-year term, was the first former head of an EU country and the initial post-WWII figure in the French Republic to experience jail.

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

Cell Library

It remains unclear whether he had time to go through the volumes he had in his cell: a life story of Jesus spanning two books together with Dumas’s work The Count of Monte Cristo, a plot where a wrongfully accused individual is imprisoned but escapes to exact retribution.

Prison Conditions

Sarkozy remained in solitary confinement due to safety concerns in a space approximately nine square meters with his own shower and toilet at the correctional facility located in the capital. Guards occupied an adjacent room.

Reports indicated that he consumed only yoghurts during his stay due to concerns any food might have been spat on. Options were available to prepare his own meals but refused this, according to reports. Not known is whether Sarkozy will write about his dietary choices.

Legal Perspective

The legal representative, Christophe Ingrain every day during the incarceration, informed the court security would be better outside jail rather than in custody. “He received menacing messages, heard shouts during nighttime plus rapid actions in an adjacent room when a prisoner self-harmed.”

Case Background

Sarkozy went to prison in late October when a French court imposed a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy related to a plan to acquire election financing for his 2007 presidential race.

He disputes the charges and is contesting the ruling, and another court case is scheduled for next spring.